HOTD Outbreak In America
by Grimmling
Summary: Anyone else have some fantasy about their school being infested with zombies? Anyone? Well this story is the spawn of my imagination and a random urge to write. Reivews are appreciated, flames will be cookiez :D
1. Chapter 1

Herlo there reader who had the time to click on my story :D This is really the first story i've written on here, so i really have nothing to say. Other than Review if you will, flames will become sushi, and enjoy this somewhat makeshift story.

All works in this document are copyrighted by my brain. I'm not sure how legal that is, but it's my story. From my skull. Wheeeee.

H.O.T.D. Outbreak in America

"Miguel hurry up! I've literally lapped you twice!" How could this day get any worse? My least favorite class, warm weather, and my best friend won't shut up.

"DAMNIT KWAN YOU KNOW I HATE RUNNING."

"Heh, want me to hit him for you?" Kaelynn Miyamoto was probably the smartest and fittest person I knew. She was a tall 5'9", which gave her one heck of a running advantage.

"Yes please, I'd do it myself but I can't grab him."

"Oh god Miguel, I didn't know you were like that." She said with a 'that's what she said' tone.

"NOT LIKE THAT!" In my mind I had anime sweat dropped, and asked what I thought of myself. "Jus- hit him already!"

Overhearing our little conversation, Kwan had said, "Oh no, how scary, Kaelynn's gonna hit me." then a moment of silence. "...OH NO KAEYLNNS GONNA HIT ME!" Then he started running faster. Aside from being smart AND looking good, she could pack a punch. They started to chase one another around the track, and it ended with Kwan exclaiming, "SAVED BY THE BELL!" *smack*

"Not so much." She still slapped him anyways.

*bell ring*

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"Pheww, it's finally over." I was exhausted, and the commotion starting at the front gate didn't help either.

After the three of us had changed out of P.E. attire, we went to see what was going on.

"I wonder what this could be, 'nother fight?" Kwan asked.

"Ugh, I hope not, there's too many fights for this school!" Personally I hated fights, even though I generally take advantage of them.

"Miguel, oh so pacifistic～" Along with my somewhat trademark evil glare, I said,

"Shut up Kwanathan." Kaelynn interrupted our verbal sparring by alerting us of who the fight was about.

"Hey guys, isn't that Marlou?"

And in almost perfect unison we said the same thing in different languages.

"Merde."

"Damn."

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Being mistaken for his brother countless times, I had to ask,

"Marlou's fighting? Who?"

Kaelynn spoke up this time, "Would I know? He always wins, so it doesn't matter."

"Yep. He just beat the guy unconscious." Kwan reported.

"Wow, is that a record time?

My endless skill of knowing everything paid off a bit and I answered, "Nope, fastest time to knock someone unconscious was 4.64 seconds, this was 4.86."

"Hey guys! What'd I miss?" My equally nerdy Korean friend Ryan joined our trio with hands in pockets.

"Marlou knocked someone unconscious. Again." I said. Me, Ryan, and Marlou were like the three nerdy musketeers, Kaelynn and her two friends, Reina and Jamie, were like the three... musketeerettes. Then as fast as it had happened, the crowd dispersed and went on with their lives.

"Well then, off to our classes." said Ryan.

"Oh sige den, off to math!" Kaelynn and I along with Reina had that class, whereas Ryan, Jamie, and Kwan had another. Marlou had a class with the genius known as Katie. As we were about to head to our classes, a loud `clang`noise sounded at the front gate.

"What was that? Correction, what IS that?" Kwan asked. It resembled a human, but stood at a massive 6'4", far taller than even Kaelynn. Its flesh was a sickly grey color and the eyes no more than fairly off-white spheres. It clearly had no sense of touch, as it kept on walking into the gate. One of the teachers walked to it and said in a commanding voice, "You there! If you're not gonna do anything important, get outta here!" He grabbed it by its shoulders, whispered something like, "Only students and teachers on this campus during school hours." and we immediately knew he was done for.

The second the teacher grabbed the thing, we felt a chill run down our backs. Once the teacher was done speaking, the thing wasted no time and proceeded to grab the man's arm and bite down on it. I don't care how badly you think you've been bitten, this guy had it worse. We could hear his bones cracking, flesh tearing, and various other sights. We would've kept watching, but he let a blood-curdling scream tear through the sky, followed by another scream from elsewhere, then another, and another. This was an infestation.

"What was that!" I could hear the panic in Kaelynn's voice. I looked around at the campus, and then wondered why there were few students panicking. Then I realized that there were actually very few students around. 'Huh, we must've been late to class.' The thoughts I come up with. As if reading my thoughts, Ryan spoke up and said,

"They probably haven't heard anything yet. This is probably a good time to get our weaponry." Most of us agreed, but Kaelynn asked,

"What? What do we need weapons for!" There wasn't any time, that teacher shouldn't be lasting very long anymore. Without the slightest word, we four males went off to find our friends and weapons. Whichever was first seen. I stopped when I realized that Kaelynn staring the, assumed, dead teacher. But it wasn't dead, but rather it had become one of the creatures. Not as tall, or with the same features, but unmistakably a Zombie. Its moans were so gruesome, and quite like those horror films. If anything its spot on. Kaelynn this time got hold of her senses, and broke us up into groups.

"Ryan and Kwan, go get Jamie, Reina, Katie, and whoever else may be useful. Me, Miguel, and Marlou will find those weapons." And without fail we all went off to our jobs. If only we were prepared for what was coming.

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{Kaelynn, Me, Marlou PoV}

"Alrighty, where to start..."

"Kendo club? There has to be some sort of weapons there, I mean, it's a kendo club. Really." Marlou suggested. It's one of those 'Durrr' moments, unique to Marlou completely.

"Shyyuuttuppp." I replied.

"Knock it off you two, let's go." Kaelynn's words were immediately followed by the awkward silence. "Ehh... where's kendo club?" Then a familiar voice said,

"Fail." We spun around to the source of the voice, and found my good friend Jamie. She walked towards us and as she neared I jokingly stated,

"Wow, impeccable timing baa-chan. impeccable timing." I had my rights to call her baa-chan.

"SHUT UP. DONT CALL ME THAT!"

To end the conversation I simply said, "Whatever whatever, nice timing anyways." Marlou took the 'referee' role this time, and said,

"Good, now we can split up." We all looked at him with a quizzical face. "Why ya'll lookin at me like that? Just saying now we can split into 2 groups of 2 and cover more ground. More ground, more weapons, more chance to survive. We'll meet back here once we're all done."

"Wow, that actually makes sense. Good call." Jamie said. "Well who's going where?" That was actually a good question. The way I saw it, me and Jamie should go one way, because I was one of the few people who she trusts, and I was one of the few that WOULD trust her. Marlou and Kaelynn were both good close-combat fighters, so it would make sense for them to go to the kendo room.

"What're you thinking about Miguel?" Marlou and I had known each other for a long time, and he could tell when I was thinking of something. Then again anyone could. I have a very strange thinking face. I stated my ideas, and we eventually all agreed, and then settled on me and Jamie going one way, and then Marlou and Kaelynn another way.

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{Me and Jamie PoV}

"Ok, if they're going to kendo club, where're we going?" Jamie and I went walking one direction, with her leading the way.

"Some old storage place I found, it's been a while since I've opened it, but it's got some pretty nice stuff in there."

"What kind?" We went to the 3rd floor of school, down the hallways and stopped at a wall. "Uhh Jamie? You sure this is the right place? Looks like a dead end to me." She laughed a bit, and said to me,

"To you it does." My question was answered when she peeled back a part of the wall, revealing a door. She opened the door, which led to a poorly-lit room.

I complained, "Wow, hard to see in here."

"Hold on, there's a flashlight around here somewhere. Lemme see... Here!" She produced a fairly small flashlight, than illuminated the room to reveal all sorts of things. Batteries, paper, spare clothing, I've always wondered how she changes clothes halfway through the school day. Then she lit up a small corner of the room, and to my delight, revealed all sorts of weapons. There were quite a few boxes of them, and she went to one labeled 'For emergency usage ONLY'.

"OH MY GOD Jamie if I didn't know you weren't gonna snap my neck I'd hug you."

"Then it's a good thing you do, now get the weapons and carry them!"

"Why me?"

"Hey, I supplied them; here I'll carry me weapon if it makes you happy." She drew out a fairly thick shortsword, which I could tell was hers for a long time. In my mind I'm thinking, 'She has a shortsword. A FREAKING SHORTSWORD for god's sake. What kind of female has a shortsword?' She held the swords like they were nothing, then I realized why she was so good at sword-sparring. I was absent-mindedly admiring her features for a while when she smacked me in the head with the blunt of the sword. In a commanding tone she ordered,

"Quit starin, let's go." I could tell I was blushing, so I just followed her out wordlessly. After maybe…. 2 minutes I asked her,

"Where to?" I wanted to know when we were gonna stop walking around.

"We're going back to the school veranda. There shouldn't be too much people there, so we'll wait for Marlou and Kaelynn to get back with what they have. Then we'll find Kwan and Ryan, have them meet us here, then leave before this place gets too infested."

"And throughout this entire escapade I'm carrying these?" Come on, I'm a lazy person and I won't wanna carry this stuff around school. She glared at me for a while, then we got caught up in a staring contest. I always win these. Another 2 minutes had passed before she answered,

"Ehh, maybe. Once we've all chosen our weapons we can hide these somewhere and leave."

"Alrighty then." And so began our wait.

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{Kaelynn/ Marlou PoV}

I am pretty sure Marlou wanted to be paired with Kaelynn. Nonetheless, they made a very powerful duo. Kaelynn had amazing hand-to-hand and weapon combat skills, and Marlou was essentially a berserk warrior from god-knows-where. They were standing idly when Kaelynn's voice broke the silence.

"Well, you know where the kendo room is, so I'm following you." Kaelynn said. Marlou smirked and said,

"Oh we're not going to the kendo room. Anything there might be too dull to actually be used."

Kaelynn asked with a confused look, "Where are we going then?" Marlou had begun walking and said with a pedophile voice,

"Ever heard of Swordplay Club?"

"We have a swordplay club? Since when?" she began to follow, then for no reason they began to run, and got to said club in no time.

"Since me and a couple of friends started it. We did exactly what the name says. Swordplay. And some sparring." They got to the door when they realized,"Damnit I forgot the keys... Kaelynn can you break the door down?"

"Heh, no problem." She readied one leg for a kick, and as definitely as she said it, the door fell off of its hinges in one go. "Couldn't you have done that?"

"Yes, but I'm too lazy." The room inside was actually well-lit, and very spacious.

"Wow, this is a nice place you got here. Really nice designs too." The room was about the size of every other classroom, albeit less classroom like. With the desks and chairs were arranged neatly in a corner, and the floor was covered with a hard-looking material. Upon closer inspection, and an epic fall onto the mats, the material turned out to be very soft and cushioning, yet stable. "Wow, these are some nice pads. Where'd you get them?" The walls of the room weren't as padded, in fact they were pretty hard. Seeming to think about something, Marlou replied,

"Imported from a Thailand worker. Not that legal, but who's gonna jail us for padding?" Weird, weird friends I have. "Now, help yourself to any weaponry you might like." While the female in the room was toying with the padding, he had reached into various hidden drawers in the room, apparently looking for something.

"You need something? And where's the sturdiest sword you've got?" She was now on her feet behind Marlou.

"I'm looking for my special sword. Jade on the hilt, steel blade with sapphire designing on it. About a meter long. As for your sword, broadswords are in the box to my right, the shortswords should be behind them. There's a mace Felipe uses, maybe you can use it." Kaelynn walked to the area designated, then began to find the right sword. 'Wow these are some nice weapons. Hm... Her train if thought was interrupted by Marlou screaming,

"AHA! I HAVE FOUND IT!" He held the, indeed impressive, weapon in his hand. The handle looked soft, and comfortable to grip, and on the end of it was a Jade crystal. The blade was gleaming silver, shining and bright, divided in half by an intricate design of blue sapphire. He smiled wickedly and said to Kaelynn,

"Now for your toy..."

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After settling on a bringing a katana, 13 throwing knives, a mace, some kunais, and a couple of shurikens, the melee warriors left the room to find us. Marlou's impatience made him wonder out loud,

"Where the RUBBER BALLS are they? We've been walking for how long now?"

Kaelynn giggled slightly and said, "36 seconds, no joke."

"..."

"Oh come on, I'm sure Jamie's gonna appear out of nowhere again and we'll just need to find Ryan and Kwan. Hey, if they were looking for Katie, Reina, useful people AND Jamie, wouldn't they be confused trying to find Jamie?" Marlou simply answered,

"I dunno." He apparently had said it with a harsh tone, but Kaelynn didn't seem to mind. Now they were sitting on a bench relaxing until we got to where they were. Relaxation fail.

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{Ryan/Kwan PoV}

You'd think that a psychopath and... Kwan couldn't get into much trouble. Think again. In the same time that it took me, Jamie, Marlou, and Kaelynn to get our damn weapons, THEY managed to find 2 people, 2 extra people, a pair of spiked gauntlets, and the keys to the female locker room.

"Okay Ryan, you know which class they're in right? LEAD THE WAY!" Kwan was a very spontaneous fool, but he was a good fighter nonetheless.

"Fine..." Ryan began walking, and the other one followed soon. Sadly their first objective was on the other side of the campus. Said target was Reina Cen. Not exactly the tallest person, she was a very unique individual. Her combat prowess was passed only by Marlou and Ryan on their bad days, and matched by none other than her best friend Kaelynn.

"WHOA HOLD ON." Ryan's somewhat loud exclamation drew Kwan's answer of,

"What? What happened?"

"WE TOOK A WRONG TURN! I DUNNO WHERE THIS PLACE IS!" Epic fail moment. As smart as these guys are, they sometimes had no common sense. After slightly overreacting, aka falling to the floor and spazzing out, Kwan managed a weak "What do you mean lost? Can't we just turn around?"

Ryan's reply was a mere "You kidding me? This school can be a labyrinth if you don't know your way around. If we walk ai- WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

"Well, if you're gonna do squat and worry, you can die without trying." And with that, Kwan turned the corner only to be back within the minute and say,

"Found a door."

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They went up to that door, and with a little bit of manpower, and Ryan's hacking skills, managed to get it open. The room inside was familiar, but not that much. Very white and tiled flooring, it was similar to the

"Medical room. This has to be the medical room, look at all of this stuff!" Kwan said.

Ryan had been looking around, when he spotted something interesting.

"Well, door saying 'confiscated weapons' sounds cool. Check it out?"

Kwan's eyes seemed to shine with an evil tint as he said, "Ohhhh this'll be fun..."

Kwan noticed first, and pointed out a lock on the door.

"Err, how do we open it? There's a pretty complex looking lock on it."

"Well, whose medical ward is this?" Kwan looked around and found a plaque reading 'Miss Brandi Kuhora, Winner of the 1998 Medical Nobellion Prize' "Well, I guess its Brandi's place."

"Good job. Now go find something useful here while I jack into here." Having said that, Ryan turned to the lock, and began to think. Kwan just stood around. Waiting for him to be done. Within 5 minutes, the door was open, and revealed a fair amount of strange weaponry.

Ryan whistled at this arrange of violent weapons. It had everything from knives to spiked gauntlets.

"Hey, doesn't Marlou want one of those?" Kwan motioned to a pair of spiked gloves, and sure enough he went to take it. Oddly there was no alarm sounding, so they began playing with what they needed. Once Ryan chose a simple, bayoneted pistol and Kwan had the gauntlets and a staff, they went to exit the room. The two idiots turned the wrong direction, and went through the wrong door, directly into Ms. Kuhora's operating room.

"What are you doing here? And what are these! Actually, how did u get them is a better question." The medic seemed somewhat jittery, and wondered if the frail girl on the medical bed was okay. Then something caught Ryan's eye.

"Hey... That's Katie! What is she doing here?" Still somewhat jumpy, Brandi sat down and said,

"She was hit by something."

"What -EXACTLY- hit her?" Ryan for some reason felt mad about seeing the girl in this room. Something made him mad, and worriful, about it.

"Well..." Ms. Kuhora wasn't about to argue with children who had weaponry in hand. "She was walking around when something big hit her. She's been here for 3 days. Planned to be released today actually." The girl on the bed looked fine, other than the endless tubing leading in and out of her. Kwan went to ask a question, but was cut off when the first of many Zombies slammed into the door, breaking it easily.

"For Christ's sake, they're already here!" Kwan and Ryan readied their weapons, and took stance in front of the two females. Ryan intended to be the one closer to Katie, and stood slightly back.

"Kwan I hope your good with that sword, this gun won't do much." Ryan was behind Kwan's right, directly in front of Katie, which Brandi was next to. Kwan indeed was fair in swordfights, but wouldn't last forever.

"Brandi, wake up Katie, we're moving out." His idea was to move out to the veranda, where there more space to move, and where we were. After the zombies in their way were gone...

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Aaaaaaaand this writer is finished :D Well like, for now. I might be continuing if i find the willpower to do so. I seem to lack said willpower. If i do continue, chapter two will have the fihgitng scenes in it :) 3,600 words :D I wanted that number. :P


	2. Chapter 2: Fire and Escape

Hey so Bob, you wanna like, go out with me?" She expected a yes, but her answer came out more like a "Uuuuuggghh... Gaahhh..."

"Could you like repeat that? I coul- HOLY SHI-" Well, at least they'd be together. Now the school was a panic, there were zombies everywhere, blood was gushing from victims bite would, flowing freely and ending. Then they died, their corpses falling only to rise up and become yet another one of 'it'. The four of us began to form a makeshift phalanx. Marlou, Kaelynn and Jamie were in front, while I was behind them, nail gun ready. Being the one most in conflict, it seemed Marlou was fit to be the leader.

"Where to my friend?" He may be the somewhat appointed leader, but I still wouldn't show much respect.

"I don't know! I fight with humans! Not mindless zombies!" We had avoided the majority of zombies, but it wouldn't be long until we had to slice their heads off. "You wanna rescue your friend? The short one?"

"You mean Reina?"

"Yea her. Well they're not getting any farther, and I want the first head!" With that we ran, yes I ran, into the horde of corpses. Marlou indeed had the first kill, followed shortly by Jamie slicing off a head, then me placing a nail in between one's eyes, and a fairly well placed stab from Kaelynn to its stomach. Sadly Kaelynn's strike didn't do much, as everyone knows that to kill a zombie, one must destroy the brain. The living corpse would've made Kaelynn one of its own kin, if Marlou hadn't sliced the head off right then. He looked at her momentarily and advised,

"Hit the brain, or cut off the head. You gotta disable its mind." Kaelynn shakily replied,

"O-Okay. So like this?" She swung her sword at a zombie to her left, and cleaved its skull into a fair amount of pieces.

Marlou was too busy killing other zombies, but still said, "Yea, like that." We were now heading towards classroom 454, where Reina was. I only fired at zombies when they were become detrimental to our survival chances, while the swordsman and women, sliced at anything too close for comfort. All around us people were dying, but there were pockets of people putting up a fight. Towards our left was a fairly large group of people, they looked fairly well off, but eventually they would fall. There were some people who found some nice hiding spots, but those won't last too long. By this time we were smack-dab in the middle of the horde, and out of nowhere, an old urge of mine resurfaced. I felt the same thrill of murdering someone again, and shot 3, still human, people in their heads, and stomaches.

"MIGUEL WHAT THE **** ARE YOU DOING!" Marlou screamed at me. Jamie and Kaelynn also looked at me with a very blaming face, as if I had done something wrong. I probably shoulda mentioned this to my friends a while back, but that can hold off for a bit. For now we had a friend to rescue.

"Ignore it! I'll explain once we've got Reina, Ryan and Kwan AND we're safe!" I didn't even look twice at them before I turned and aimed at a couple of zombies. Kaelynn put a firm hand on Marlou's shoulder and said,

"Come on, let's go. We can question him later." Marlou silently agreed, and led the way to Reina's location. Right through the thickest part of the zombie horde. This would prove to be interesting...

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[Ryan Kwan Katie Brandi PoV]

Funny how people can hide things from everyone for so long, but there's always one person who seems to be able to uncover that secret. Ryan, while he was one of my nerd friends, was a very psychopathic child. He's gotten into many street fights, both in America and Korea, which he has an attachment to. Everyone knew him as a laid-back person who could snap in a moment's instance. Yet this female on the bed, now awakening to the sound of chaos in the school, was making him feel softer. He couldn't let that happen. He grumbled to himself,

"I've got people to protect, and she's one of them. Kwan, give me those gauntlets. Now." Kwan gave him the weapon, and then waited for a zombie to attack them. He kept his sword leveled and ready to strike. Ryan gently nudged Katie, and asked her,

"Hey, you awake?" She groaned a bit as she woke up, and nodded slightly. Ryan decided she wasn't ready, and commanded,

"Not awake enough. Brandi, carry her, follow us and don't die. Comprendes?" Brandi's stuttered a very shaky,

"Y-y-yes. I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I got it."

"Good. Kwan, think you can get us out of here?" The two males were now standing guard, and Kwan asked,

"How many bullets are in that gun?" Ryan checked and replied by raising 12 fingers. "Hm... that should be good. Okay, follow me guys." Kwan edged around some zombies, and the rest followed suit. They haven't been attacked, or attacking, yet, but it was only a matter of time. Now we all know that sound attracts zombies, so when Kwan opened the heavy door, the noise from the hinges squeaking gave them away.

"Causa Sui Set Aro..." Ryan knew a lot of languages. Latin was one of them. "Well, RUN! GET OUTSIDE!" True enough, the three people (And Katie, carried by Brandi), ran all the way through the caverns of the school hallway. Luckily Brandi knew these halls, and told them where to go.

"Okay, Kwan, make a left then take the second right, we should be out of this place then." Kwan did as told, and was shocked by the sight seen. The school was in total anarchy and chaos. So much blood was everywhere, fires were beginning to erupt from buildings, and the sky was filled with a red tint and smoke. "Good god..." Brandi set the now awake Katie on the floor, and covered her own mouth with her hands in astonishment.

"What happened while I was out?" Katie was leaning on Kwan for support, much to Ryan's dismay. Heck, she shoulda been leaning on him for support! Kwan replied,

"Well, zombie came, brought his friends, invaded the school, etc." The pale girl looked at him with confused eyes, and asked,

"Where's my friends? Kaelynn, Reina and Jenny?" Ryan sighed and was going to say he didn't know, but when he looked up he saw us running into the group of zombies. He thought out loud the same thing everyone was thinking,

"Those idiots..."

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"Almost there guys! Little more!" Halfway through the horde, I ran out of nails to shoot and resorted to stabbing at zombies with the nail gun. The trio in front was beginning to tire as well, but a couple dozen more zombies and we'd be at the stairs, which zombies can't climb. We've been joined by some other people as well, but they've mostly fallen to the horde.

"WATCH OUT JAMIE!" I stabbed at a zombie reaching for her head, and she went to decapitate it. Blood fountained from the neck, showering Jamie and I in blood.

"Goddamnit! This was my nice clothing too!" As tomboyish as Jamie could get, she was still a female, and females generally are more protective of their clothing than males are. Regardless of situation.

"Get over it, now come on, Marlou's not gonna wait for long." Indeed, he was already inching forward. Kaelynn was still with us, and we were all covering each others' backs.

"LET'S GO LOVEBIRDS. YOU CAN FLIRT WHEN WE'RE SAFE. IT'S LITERALLY 12 FEET TO THE STAIRS." Too tired to argue, I swallowed the retort in my throat and began to follow. Jamie wasn't as tired as I was, and was read with a comeback for him.

"SILENCIO PUTANG INA. PUNETA IKA NAMAN." I sniggered at Marlou's loss, but was cut short by Jamie's evil glare. I got the implied message, and followed the female. Not gonna argue. We blasted through 12 feet and a staircase's worth of zombies, and finally reached the top of the stairs. We lost some guys on the way here though, I think of their names was Carina or something.

"Phewwwww, finally. We're up the stairs." Kaelynn was lying on the floor, looking exhausted. "How long was that?"

Marlou panted out, "I dunno, felt like we were running for maybe 13 minutes. Well, no time to waste, Reina might be dead already." We fell silent at the thought. If she was dead, then all of this was a waste of our precious time. Neither me nor Marlou actually had any feelings for her, but it was still saddening to think that a child like her was dead. "Well, we came here. We might as well find her, or put an end to her existence." We got up to move to where she was, when I thought out loud,

"Where're Ryan and Kwan..."

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"DOUBLE YOU. TEE. EFF. Did they just RUN into there!" Brandi was awestruck when she saw us run head first into that horde. "I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S NOT HOW YOU SURVIVE... Is it?" The three children and adult were still standing around until Katie said,

"Shouldn't we run? Or find someone or thing useful?" The sound of her fragile voice was strange amongst the sounds of screaming, fire, and zombie moans. Ryan was too shell-shocked to reply, so Kwan replied with a curt nod, and a "Mhm, let's find Reina. We were supposed to anyways." they began to walk towards the classroom, but they seemed to be unopposed by any living corpse. The zombies would come within 2 feet of them, and then they would freeze up and turn around. The total time taken to get to the staircase was a mere 7 minutes, for there was nothing to hinder their progress. They got to Reina's class before we had, and we still ended up having to save their arses too.

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"GET BEHIND ME JEFFREY!" Reina was combating a zombie while Jeffrey was walking around aimlessly in an infested classroom, and commanded him to stay behind her.

"My name's not Jeffrey!"

"Would you LIKE to die?"

"..." Reina was in the corner of the room farthest from the door, barely managing to fend off a fairly large group of zombies. Her remaining classmates were behind her, most of the rest had died already. Among the surviving, there was a very illiterate student nicknamed 'Jeffrey'. His real name was Allen, but Jeffrey kinda stuck. While most people were annoyed by him, there were few who treasured his existence. Reina wasn't one of them.

"ALLEN YOU BLITHERING IDIOT!" She was busy fighting off two massive zombies, while he had caused an ally to miss a swing and die. "IF YOURE NOT GONNA DO ANYTHING GO THROW YOURSELF INTO A GROUP!" For her diminutive size, Reina was maybe the toughest person alive that I personally know. About the time Reina beheaded one zombie, and was standing on anther, Ryan, Kwan, Brandi, and Katie blew the door open. Literally.

"Explosive ammo, nice." Ryan's gun had explosive bullets. He took aim at a large zombie -the one Reina was on- and fired. Reina just barely had time to jump off of it before it blew apart. "10 ammo count!"

"Save your ammo!" when Reina jumped, she didn't bother to check where she was, and jumped right into Jeffrey. Sadly for Jeffrey, Reina caused more damage to him than she suffered. The illiterate being was on the floor, clutching a broken ribcage, and a bleeding jaw. "Eh, I'll say sorry if he lives through this. If not, oh well."

"FFFFFF- OWWWWWMYGOD!" He was in too much pain to be of much use, and with a quick kick to the crotch to shut him up, he was silent. Kwan was busy trying to get to Reina, who was on the other side of the class. What he didn't expect was Jeffrey's corpse flying through the air.

"What the..." The corpse, as it turned out, wasn't dead. He landed atop an average size zombie and was bitten. His blood fountained everywhere, repainting everyone with a fresh coat of bloody red. Kwan saw Reina bounding on the desks, on the walls, even on the walking corpses, and eventually she was at his side, sweaty and tired.

"Hey there." She was panting heavily, but had a lot of energy left.

"Halloo, you okay?"

"Yea, come on lets go." She turned to leave, but Kwan stopped her and asked,

"But your fr-"

"They'll buy us sometime. I threw Jeffrey so I could get out." She turned to leave, and half dragged a shocked Kwan with her. Brandi, Ryan, and Katie had been keeping the escape route clear, and once Reina and Kwan met up with them they began to escape. They took a couple of turns, and the sight given to them was anything but happy.

"OH COME ON. CANT A GIRL GET SOME LUCK IN THIS PLACE!" Reina's temper was short at the moment, but Katie knew exactly how to calm her down.

"Reina, don't go crazy. Please? I don't wanna see you angry. It scares me." I don't know if she was acting or not, but her voice had the perfect tone to her voice. And it worked magic on the short female, as well as Ryan.

"Why thank you for that info Katie. But I don't think we can get out of her by being calm." Then with that, she started to take a bunch of dead corpses and started to throw them into a sort of barricade.

※※※※※

{Me Marlou Kaelynn Jamie PoV}

"Let's go! Kaelynn, lead the way." She knew the route better than I did, and so it made sense for her to be the one that led us to the room. She got up from the floor, and said to me,

"Alright then, but you make sure that you keep me covered."

"Oh like I'd let you get hit." Awkward silence.

"Aaaaanywayysssss…. How 'bout that route thing eh?" Marlou didn't want to waste time, or he wanted to help me out of the awkwardness. Kaelynn wondered for a moment, and said,

"Ok. But no weird words okay Miguel? Jus- keep me covered damnit!" I figured if is aid anything then something would go wrong, so I just nodded and followed her. We opened the door, only to find that there was nothing in the halls. We walked forwards a while, then took the first right on the left. NOW there were some zombies. "Okay, there are two more corners to turn, then we're at Reina's room. Guys ready?" Like we were. There was probably an excess of a hundred zombies in our path, and I still haven't reloaded my nail gun yet. Actually, now is a good time.

"Hey Kaelynn… is there anything here that might fall on the zombies to take out a bunch of them?" I was reloading my nail gun, and since I had no idea how to do so it was taking me a while.

"Well, the lights could spark if they were hit, but why?"

"You ever think zombies might burn?" She was standing hands-on-hips, thinking, then finally said,

"I think they could. But you'd need a very precise shot for it. Or a miracle." That miracle came in the form of dead bodies flying out of a hallway. "Okay, either something making very heavy wind is doing that, or someone's throwing corpses."

I finally finished reloading the damned tool, and fired 2 shots. One into a convenient gas tank, and the other into a ceiling light. "I love my idea of thinking!"

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※


	3. Chapter 3: Ehscahpeh

WHEEEE Chapter 3 my friends! I got hooked writing this so ima be updating irregularly _ AND ALSO! SHOUTOUT TO THE ONLY 2 PEOPLE WHO BOTEHRED TO REVIEW THIS STORY! You guys made my day twice :D Actually i think one of you is female, BUT WHATEVER! Now continue to read this if you will.

Disclaimer which i forgot to put on the other 2 chapters: I own nothing. +2

※

Okay, so maybe setting a fire wasn't the greatest idea, but it's definitely effective when facing a lot of zombies. Then again, we were in the same building, and our friends were on the other side...

"Eh. This wasn't totally planned out."

Kaelynn mumbled, "You never plan ahead..." Once Marlou got his senses back from laughing psychotically at my 'idea', he said,

"Okay, so now how do we get to Reina and the rest?"

"We could run right through the fire." As sentimental as I could be there are moments of jumpiness. "I dunno 'bout you guys, but I'm running in!" True to my word, I ran in. Again, not planned out very well.

Jamie let go of a sigh, then stated,

"Should we follow him? I don't think he'll last long alone."

"I vote we get out of here and hightail it!" Marlou said.

"He's basically your brother and you'll let him burn?" Kaelynn jumped left to avoid a falling ceiling tile, but jumped into Jamie, who hit herself on the lockers. "Oops, sorry." Jamie thought for a moment, and decided to not follow me. What a nice friend

※

"WOW. NICE MIGUEL." Reina stood in front of Kwan, who was next to Ryan, which in front of Brandi, who was beside Katie. Ryan asked,

"How do you know it was him? It might've been Marlou." Reina turned and looked up at him, and said,

"Don't argue with me. I just know him that well. Besides, if it wasn't him, would he be running through the fire?" Reina took a double-take to see if I really was running, and sure enough, I was. "Hey he is running!"

"That's Miguel for ya. Think he got burned?"

"Dude, it's a fire. He HAS to have been burned." Ryan said. Too bad for him, I wasn't. I picked up a very thick jacket amongst the corpses while running and it proved to be a very fire-retardant jacket. I made it to the other end of the fire with a leap, directly into Reina.

"OY BON QUI QUI GET OFFA ME."

"WOW Sorry Reina." I got off of her and dusted myself of and I saw the group she was, assumed, in charge of. Kwan stood with his sword and gauntlets, Ryan held his explosive pistol, and Katie and Brandi stood around. All 5 were drenched in blood, but who wasn't?

"Well, we're all here now. Let's head back?"

"Genius idea Miguel, but did you not notice the blazing fire which you came from?" Kwan had a point, but we were near a classroom...

"Reinaaaaa, break the door down pleeease?" Instead she just opened it and allowed us in. "Zhank Jou mademoiselle." I stepped in and found a stack of $60, which isn't what I needed. I looked around some more, and found a fire extinguisher. Bingo. I went to grab it, then ran back to the flaming hallway and let the extinguisher foamy thing loose. Katie mumbled a soft

"Humph. He thinks at least." But I heard her. She had something against me, and I never knew why. I didn't try o extinguish the whole fire, just a little walkway so we could run through.

"Come on ladies! And you two..." We ran on my fire retardant road, and I realized how large our survival group was. 4 males, Marlou, Ryan, Kwan, and myself, and 5 females, Reina Katie Jamie Kaelynn and Brandi. That totaled to 9 of us, which is quite a bit.

"Hey, you alright there? Hellooo?" Kaelynn shook her hand in my face to get my attention, and then I turned to Marlou and said,

"Where to?"

"Dude, what the ballz u talkin' 'bout? You're the leader here."

"Whaaaa?" Apparently, while I was gone, these 3 people decided to appoint me leader.

[Flashback]

"Well, there he goes."

"Mhhhhm." Jamie was sweating from the fire, while Kaelynn was still relatively dry. Marlou was pouring out gallon after gallon of sweat, and could probably douse the fire with it. "Well Marlou, you're in command here. What you wanna do?"

"Whoa hold up, I'm the leader? I thought I just led us up the stairs." Marlou had a confused look on his face, and continued, "How about you Kaelynn? You're strong, tough, pretty outgoing, and you're smart enough to make a group decision." The tall female blushed and said,

"Well thanks for those compliments, but I don't think I'm suited to be leading a group to survive." She shrugged apologetically, then asked, "Jamie?"

"What?"

"You think you can lead the group?" Jamie looked at her in the eye and said,

"No. Just no."

"Okay then..." There was a small quiet moment, while the trio stood listening to the screams of terror, zombie moans, and the fire. "Miguel." Marlou asked in a wavery voice,

"Why Miguel? He's a lazy ass and can barely keep up with us! Then again..."

Jamie finished his sentence with "He has sort of been leading us hasn't he?" In my opinion, I did not lead anything. But they still decided to use me as a makeshift leader.

"Miguel it is!" The other two just mumbled their agreement, but agreed nonetheless.

[End flashback]

"I hate you guys you know that?" Jamie playfully punched my face, then said, or morely screamed,

"GET YOUR THINKING ASS INTO GEAR DAMNIT! WE AINT GONNA GET OUT OF HERE UNLESS U START THINKING COMPRENDES?"

"Hai baa-Chan..." I ducked the next 'playful' punch to my head, and began thinking of how to escape.

*SNAP*

Maybe getting out of the flaming building is a good place to start. ※

Once we were safely on the catwalk some 16 feet above the ground, I observed the carnage below us. I can say there was nothing but corpses, fire, guts and blood beneath us. And my lunch. I leaned over the edge of the platform and threw up. 'Our' nurse Brandi went to my side and asked, "You ok?"

"Yea, just a tad bit worried." Of the 9 people with me, Marlou knew me best. And he knew when I'm worried, it's really, really bad.

"About what?" We all turned to face Katie, who hadn't spoken since they had found Reina. "I'm just asking what he's worried about. I mean, we have 4 of the best close combat fighters in the school, 3 hawk-eyed gunmen, our own nurse, and an unusually smart leader." She grew quiet a mumbled a soft "And me..." I took a moment to think about what she said, and then asked,

"You listed 10 people, 4 close combaters, 3 gunmen, you, our nurse, and the leader. That totals 10, and we're only nine. Who's the leader?" Instead of answering she turned away and said,

"Never mind..." She looked like something was wrong, so I just decided to let it go. I turned back to the chaos below, sat down and resumed my thinking.

※

After about... 8 minutes I stood up, turned to my group and said, "I've got a plan."

"Finally, I thought you'd never get up." Everyone was sitting down except for Reina and Katie, who were talking about something involving a 'G-dragon'. Ryan got up, and then continued asking, "Well, what is it?"

"Okay, I'll have to explain something first, about the zombies." I took off my shoe, and threw it at Kwan.

"What the hell?"

"See that? He felt the object hit him. Zombies will not. They can't feel, hear, see, or think. They can't move uphill easily, and are infinitely stronger than any human." I took my shoe back from my test dummy put it on then continued. "Not just that, if they bite an animal, that animal will not become a zombie." Reina poked me for my attention and asked,

"You know this how? We haven't exactly studied one in detail have we?" I knelt so we were on somewhat eye level and told her, "Elementary mon Cheri." She then slapped me and screamed at me to "TELL ME HOW DAMNIT. I AM A STRESSED FEMALE AND ID LIKE SOME ANSWERS. AND DONT CALL ME MON CHERI."

"Geez okay, while I was looking down from the catwalk, I was observing the zombies and how they reacted to their surroundings. One of them was walking continuously into a wall, which led my suspicion that they cannot feel nor can they see. One living human threw a rock at another, and it didn't react. He then began talking loudly, and immediately the zombies near him turned at him. "Everyone was now up, and if we were thinking the same thing, then we were going to be ninjas for a bit.

※

"Are you sure this'll work?" Marlou asked. We lowered ourselves down from the catwalk, and back into the infestation.

"Breh, I'm not sure of anything. But we can hope right?"

Marlou sighed to himself then mumbled, "Humph. So, who's going with who and where?"

Reina said, "Weren't you listening? We're sending everyone two at a time, avoiding as many zombies as possible and staying quiet." While she was talking, me and Katie were already starting to move into the horde.

※

"Ugghhhh, these things are nasty." I hated dirty things, but what could I do about it?

"Miguel, please be quiet." Katie hissed at me. She turned around cautiously then continued, "Keep talking and I'll sacrifice you to them."

"Katie we both know you won't do that."

"..." We stayed quiet for a long while, until we could see the gates which would lead us to freedom. We both saw it, glanced at each other, and we both ran like hell. We climbed onto a high enough ledge, then signaled the rest of them to come in. "Finally, we're outta there." This time I was silent, then just waited for the rest.

※

{Skipping to when everyone is together again}

"Okay then! We're all here right? Reina you here?" Reina appeared from behind Marlou and kicked Ryan in the shins.

"I don't take to 'midget jokes' very well. Usually."

Even in a zombie apocalypse, Katie managed to laugh a bit, then asked Reina, "Come on Reina, you didn't need to hit him THAT hard did you?" Reina and Kaelynn were one of the few people that Katie trusted, so she was generally always near them. We were walking along an abandoned road, which seemed pretty zombie-deprived. There was a large hill coming up, but I was hoping that it was like this for a while, and it was only our school that had been hit.

"Alright ladies, enough worrying about Ryan and more following our murderous leader." Everyone who heard the comment fell silent, and had themselves a little thinking time. Fair enough. I was walking a fair bit out front, and moving farther from them with all of my thoughts in my mind.

'What if I accidently kill one of them...?' 'Oh don't worry, they don't matter. Kill all of them why not?' 'Nonono that simply won't do. You must send them through as much PAIN as possible. LET THEM SUFFER!' 'But, they're my friends! I mean, they're there for me an-' 'SILENCE FOOL, they don't want you, they're just using you. Once the risk of having you around outweighs the advantages, they'll stab you in the back!' I ended verbally screaming my response.

"SHUT THE **** UP." I hoped they didn't hear that. I risked a look backwards, and they were all looking at me. Apparently they'd exchanged some weapons. Now Marlou had the gauntlets, and Kaelynn had the jade sword. Jamie kept her short swords, and Reina now held what was Kwan's weapon. Brandi still had nothing, and Ryan's pistol was in his pocket. Katie was holding the mace Kaelynn was carrying around, and I of course had my nail gun, which had about 27 nails left. I turned my attention back to the roadway, and was stunned by the view.

"Why'd you stop Miguel?" Reina was first to appear next to me, followed by Kaelynn and Katie. "Oh. That's why." The entire city was a scene out of hell. Remember my hope that the thing was only at school? Yea abandon all hope of that will ya? There were fires spreading to anything they could reach, burning whatever ran into them. Dead bodies were moving around, killing the living flesh. There were bartenders fighting the dead, children men women, everyone was in panic.

"Well, how gonna get through this Bon Qui Qui?"

"Hey, why do I make all the decisions around here? You all know about my condition, but you still want me to be deciding?"

"Focus, we need a plan and not some whining leader."

"Fine fine, well we could always charge right through, which takes less time, or we could move around it all. The second is much safer, but it'll take us a long time." I looked back at the rest of the group, and was relieved they weren't still staring. Katie, Kaelynn, and Ryan were talking while Marlou was sleeping. Brandi was playing with some pebbles, and Jamie and Kwan were silently next to each other. I took note of how much weaponry a group of friends would have. 5 swords, 2 spiked gauntlets, a gun, a nail gun, and Reina.

"HEY. You there?" Reina nudged me for my attention, so I turned back to the chaotic scene. "So, think we can go right through? We don't have enough food to go around this entire place, so in my opinion the middle is best." I thought it over, and I remembered there were living people there. 'Oh no, what if I kill them? I don't even know them!' 'Oh well, don't know them, don't matter.' 'But, will my friends forgive me? What if I kill a little kid! That's just wrong in every single way possible!' I got up from the ground and sighed. "You okay?"

"Mhm, I'm okay." I looked at her with weary eyes, which showed her that I was still human. Regardless of my killer habit, I was human.

"Alright, don't stress about it too much Bon Qui Qui, I'll get everyone." She left me alone, and once she got back, I had left.

※

"Alright kiddies! Let's go!" She kicked Marlou awake and helped him up. The sleepyhead asked,

"Where're going?"

"Nowhere. Just into a zombie infested... everywhere." All heads except for Ryan and Jamie turned, and then Kaelynn asked,

"Okay really, where're we going?"

"I told you! Into a zombie infested everywhere!" Everyone picked up their weapons, while those without stood straight. "Well, at least Miguel's gonna have a lot to kill." Brandi asked of her,

"Are you gonna take this lightly? You talk about his condition like it's a cold, treat it with some level of respect. I don't care if you don't have it, he may just as well kill you in some murder flash." This scared everyone, as when Brandi spoke like that, it meant something was wrong. Without much word, Kaelynn hefted her new jade sword and turned away.

"Well now that we're all done here, let's get back to the charging eh?" Reina turned to where I was, only to find air in my place. "Oh hell no."

※

'MWAHGHHAAAA, KILL THEM ALL!' 'WILL I NOT?' 'GOOD! KILL THEM! ALL OF THEM!' I was on my murder spree. Let me explain my condition a bit more. I have this condition where I impulsively attack people. I was only able to go to school because of my regular checkups, where they bombard my brain with non-lethal radiation to lessen my urge. The day of the outbreak I had a checkup scheduled after class. I never got the treatment, so my killer instinct was festering. A side effect of the radiation treatments was a second conscience inside my head when I was feeling bad. He doesn't speak often, but they can talk like humans. It's like talking on a phone, but in your head. Back to present situation. My nail gun was lost somewhere in the chaos everywhere, so I just used whatever I could to kill whatever was alive. I smashed a zombie's head with a chair, which broke, then attacked a man with a frying pan. As of now I was using a metal pole trying to wrestle it from a large zombies grip. Didn't work out.

"Grrr, ***** let it go!" I didn't get much of a reply so I kicked the zombie in its stomach to drive it away. It fell back, and then impaled itself on a broken bench. 'Heh, haven't been getting better have we?'

"Oh shut up, at least I CAN fight. Your existence depends on it." 'Grrr...' I was distracted from the conversation when I heard a feminine voice scream.

"AHHHHHHHHH! HELP ME!" The voice was coming from the bakery across the street, which was heavily burning. For some reason I ran across the street to get the girl, but there was a burning door in my way. A quick look in the mirror revealed a mass of zombies inside, surrounding a man, a boy, and a girl. I only caught a glimpse of them before the horde covered my view.

"Ahh damn, how to get inside..." I looked around for something to use, when my eyes locked onto something infinitely useful. "Oh this'll be fun..."

※

Once I combined a food cart, a couple of spikes, and some extra wheels to form some sort of battering ram I moved the vehicle in front of the door. "Now let's hope that they're still alive." I ran the thing into the door, and impaled 4 zombies on the spot. "WAHOOO I LOVE THIS THING!" I wheeled my way into the zombie swarm and stopped in front of the survivor. Yes survivor. The man and boy had died, and the girl was crying, preparing for the inevitable. Then I happened. I picked up and put (or thrown, as it was) her on top of the battering ram. I already planned out my escape, which involved some odd maneuvers. "Here goes all!" I went rammer first into the zombies in front of me, then sharply turned left, which led me to a collision course with the window. The girl stopped crying at this point and was screaming for dear life. Perfect. Using a zombie as a kickoff, I plunged into the window, breaking it and my battering ram. The girl and I tumbled a fair bit until I hit a wall and she stopped rolling. "Whee that was some ride!" I looked over at the girl to find her sitting up holding her shoulder. "You okay there?"

She took in a sharp breath and said,

"Yea, I'm fine. Mostly. Just a painful shoulder." I took my first good look at her, and my GOD was she gorgeous. She had the perfect tanned skin on the perfectly shaped body. Her face was beautiful, with the attraction of Asia and the sharpness of Europe. Her long black hair was a mess, but still looked smooth and relatively clean. What surprised me were her eyes. From behind a mess of hair were 2 deep brown eyes. They were like magnets, attracting ANYONE who looked into them. Then those breas- "Uhmm, why are you staring at me?" I shook my head and quickly stated,

"I was checking for any surface injuries. You seem fine, can you walk?" I held a hand out to help her up, so she grabbed it and pulled herself up.

"Thank youuuu. Uhmm, well I guess I might as well introduce myself?"

"Please, me first. I am Miguel Rikuma." She looked somewhat startled when I said my last name but continued with,

"I'm Yuki... Yuki..."

"Hey, don't stress yourself about it. Yuki is a fine name." She pursed her lips, and for a moment I was lost in those eyes again. They were the brown eyes found on most Asians, but they looked like there was something beneath them. A secret of some sort.

"So, uhmm... do you have a plan to get out of here? I guess you already know how to kill these things."

"Yes, I do. But the nail gun I've been using was lost somewhere. You wouldn't happen to have any weapons would you?" She thought for a moment ad remembered,

"There's a gun of some kind in Mr. Gi's house, I thinks he's dead by now so I guess you could take it." She got me at the word gun.

"Well then Yuki, show me Mr. Gi's residence. Please." With a nod she walked past me and grabbed my hand for me to follow, and the voice in my head said one thing, 'Oh god don't get attached...'

※

While I was running into the infested place and saving a newfound friend, the other 8 were trying to find me.

"Ugh, stupid boy." Kaelynn nodded agreement, then asked,

"Should we go get him?" Brandi spoke and said,

"I think we should." Marlou, Reina, Jamie and Katie agreed, but Ryan thought otherwise.

"You sure we should" He might kill us if we try to save him. He may be killing some guy right now!"

"Well I'm not gonna leave my falsified brother, so if ya'll wanna come with me, do it now. Kwan and Reina immediately joined, followed by Brandi, then Katie Jamie and Kaelynn. Ryan came too, but only because Jamie was dragging him with her.

"Let's go! I won't carry you forever! In fact it ends now." Jamie dropped Ryan to floor and began the rest of them into our lil' infested village. "Now where could he be..."

※

After walking for god-knows how long, Yuki and I finally got to Mr. ... Bah I forget his name.

'Well, we're here". I kicked the door open , then immediately jumped to the right to avoid anything hiding. Nothing came out, so I cautiously stepped in. The place was actually in pretty good shape. Lights were on, only minor blood splotches, no dead nor living bodies moving, and the house wasn't burning. "Follow me, I know where his gun rack is." She led me around a walkway then made a left, which in turn led to a door. "Its locked, so yo- Never mind." She wanted me to break the door, so I did. What was inside made me wanna cry in joy. There was a case, long and black, with only a few locks. I broke the locks and opened the case to reveal the sexiest weapon I've ever held. Well second, the rail gun was pretty tight. This gun in front of me measured about the same size as a standard sniper rifle, with a bayonet attachment. The ammo cases held 50 bullets each, with 4 ammo cases. Everything was painted pitch-black, and the bullets and bayonet were contrasting silver. I Started screaming like Kyoya Ootori's fan girls, and my other conscience went ape**** too.

"KYAAAAAAAAA ITS SO PRETTY YUKI-CHAN!" 'WAHHHHOOOO I COULD STARE AT THIS AND BE HAPPY!' This went on for 2 and a half minutes then I finally stopped and assembled the gun. I looked over at Yuki to find she was lauging from behind her hand. "Oh be quiet woman." I stood up and let my newly beloved weapon shine in its glory. Then I had her lead us back outside where I barely caught a glimpse of Kaelynn's legs passing from behind a building.

"Oh, is that a living person?"

"You bet it is, come on!" We sprinted to catch up to her, and we got to our group. Most of it anyways.


	4. Secrets Unveiled And Ignored

HELLLO CHILDREN OF THE FANFIC WORLD! Okay i had to say that. ANYWAYS, here's chapter 4 of my makeshift story, driven by imagination, and partial obsessiveness. Without further ado, Chapter four! OH, and a shoutout to my real world story obsessor, he won't shut up telling me to post faster x) if only he was female i would do so. OKay, NOW chapter four!

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

HOTD Outbreak In America

)*Chapter Four*(

~Secrets Unveiled... And Ignored~

Most of us. There were 2 pieces missing in our 9 man chess game. The Katie and Brandi pieces.

"Yo Kaelynn!" She spun around and half-tackled, half-hugged, and all scared me when she heard my voice.

"MIGUEL WE FOUND YOU!"

"Actually I found you. And her." I motioned towards Yuki who blushed away from the new attention. Kwan whispered to Marlou,

"Heh, Miguel found a lady friend while he was gone. Hehehe..." I never bothered to respond to that, as I was busy answering endless questions. Kaelynn, Reina and Jamie wouldn't shut up about 3 things, Yuki, the gun, and how I shouldn't run into a flaming zombie infested place.

"Who's the girl?"

"Where'd you find her? Why'd u save her?"

"HOW did you save her?"

"Did she give you that gun?"

"SHUT UP! DANG I CAN'T ANSWER WHEN YA'LL BE TALKIN." Now that they were silent, I answered their questions. "Well, the girl is Yuki, found her at some building, saved her because... well tell me why not?" They giggled at that, and Yuki just remained quiet. "Anyways... I used a battering ram thingy to get her, and yes she technically gave me this gun. Now MY turn, where's Katie and Brandi?" There was complete silence as I realized what happened to them. "Did they...?"

Ryan very solemnly nodded, and I, in comparison to Ryan's reaction, did nothing. I collapsed on the hard earthen floor trying to ingest the new information however.

"Okay, tell me exactly what happened." Ryan bit his lower lip then, to everyone's shock, began sobbing uncontrollably. "Uh..."

"It's okay Miguel, ill explain about everything in a minute." I stood on noodly legs and listened to Reina's story.

※※※※※※

{FLASHBACK}

"If I die Kwan, I'll kill you!" Marlou was smashing brain after brain with his spiked gauntlets, while Kwan was behind him slicing off heads.

"That makes no sense!" Kwan cut off ahead of one zombie, then stabbed the brain of another. Another zombie approached his blindside, but Jamie killed that one then returned to Reina. Reina was jumping zombie to zombie while Kaelynn hacked at everything in her way Brandi and Katie stood helpless, and were relying on Ryan and Jamie to kill anything endangering them.

"Damnit I've got 4 bullets left!" Ryan was stabbing at zombies' heads when they got too close, and only shot at large groups of zombies. "3!"

"Come on! We have to move to higher ground!" Reina commanded. "Everyone MOVE!" They all took off at a reckless sprint, and in doing so Ryan fell and tripped.

"Ryan!" Katie scrambled back to help him but ended up condemning herself. "Take my hand!" she reached out her hand, but when Ryan took it to pull himself up, she fell into the horde.

"KATIE! HOLY S***" Ryan immediately began sobbing once he read the final message Katie mouthed. He longed to say the same to her but never had the guts to do so. Now he could never live knowing he they felt the same towards each other.

'I love you.' Ryan stood awestruck at the moment he read her lips, cried and almost regained his composure. He unloaded his remaining bullets into the group of zombies, then ran for his life.

"Hurry up Ryan!" Marlou was scream-urging him to run faster, but he saw that without any help he'd be dead. Ryan's help? Brandi's miscalculated step.

"AHHHH!" Brandi took one misstep and fell directly into the horde, buying Ryan some time. There were no waterworks for her.4

{END Flashback}

※※※※※※

"I see..." I moved next to Ryan and asked him, "You alright buddy?"

He was crying heavily, and nodded yes. I saw nothing I could do to help him, so I went back to Yuki and Reina.

"Is he okay?" Yuki showed some concern for him even though the two only knew that the other existed. I could she was a soft soul, caring and what not, but those captivating eyes of hers kept things secluded.

"Yea, he'll be fine. Nothing bothers him for more than a day."

Yuki muttered a soft, "Okay..."

"Hey, don't worry about it. How about we get you acquainted with the rest of us?" I helped her up then walked around introducing her to my friends. "Ladies first, these here are Reina and Kaelynn. Two of the finest melee combattants we have." They both waved hi and we moved on. "Next female, Jamie, my very own baa-chan." Jamie softly pushed me and said to Yuki,

"Has he scared you yet?" Jamie and I laughed a bit while Yuki was standing awkwardly.

"Sorry 'bout that, off to the males! Actually here's one." Kwan was walking towards us, sword in hand. "That one's Kwan. A comedian by idiocy, a fighter by command." I led Yuki to Marlou, who was asleep. "This guy," I was interrupted by her guess, which was,

"Is your brother?"

"Heh, no. But people mistake us as brothers. He's basically the psychopathic warrior from heck." The day was slowly becoming night, and our group was clearly becoming tired. Yuki yawned and leaned on me, and instinctively I shrugged her off. MAN am I an idiot.

"Hm, well, I'm gonna go to sleep too, care to join?" I didn't know if she was flirting with me or just being nice, but how could I say no? We layed down on the ground, closed our eyes and fell asleep. Before slipping into peaceful dreams, Chuck, the inner voice said, 'I'm never letting you drop your guard boy, never.'

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I awoke to the sound of, would you believe it, screams. There were new people running and being attacked, while our group was safely above the ground. Everyone was now waking up, drowsy and whatnot. After shaking off the post-sleep drowsiness, I picked up my gun and aimed at some zombie cornering a young boy. "Let's see how you work." I flicked off the safety, then let one bullet loose. The gun was relatively quiet for its size. Still made a noise however. Noise enough to attract a fair amount of zombies to the base of our platform.

"Nice one." Jamie was staring down directly into the horde then looked at Kaelynn and said, "Well this is... ****." Marlou and Ryan started laughing out of nowhere, then unanimously uttered,

"GO GO POWER RANGERS!" At least they're happy. Yuki was now up, and realizing she didn't have a weapon, asked the other one she found most-likely-to-have-a-spare-weapon for one.

"Reina do you have a weapon I can borrow? I think I'll need one."

"Uhh, I think Kaelynn''s got something, KAELYNN!" Reina called for her, but she had nothing on her person. "Ugh, loser. Anyways, Sorry Yuki, nothing for ya, but you'll find one. We generally do."

"Oh, okay then!" She turned to leave and looked over at the group below us. "Ohhhh how are we gonna get off."

My reply was, "Weelll, I figured I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone by going roof-jumping."

"Two birds? I see only one, getting out of here. What's the other?"

"Well Kaelynn always wanted to go roof jumping, so I figure... yea."

"You're nice." She said in a cheery voice. Awkward silence, aaand CUE CHUCK! 'Boy, you takin' a liking to her?''No! Why would you think that!' All I have to do to reply to my inner voice is think, which is good for the most part. 'Uh-huh. Then tell me why you two were sleeping near each other!' 'LET'S SEE. It was pretty cold,' chuck said, 'It's the summer' my response, 'I was sleepy,' 'You were still standing' Then I verbally said, "She asked me to sleep!"

"Hmm?" I just then realized that she had no idea about my murderous condition, and no one knew about Chuck the inner voice. 'Tell me how I got stuck with the name Chuck?' She looked at me and I quickly changed the subject by saying,

"Nothing, let's go move out now." We both stood and gathered our other members, then went jumping.

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"THIS IS THE MOST FUN I'VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE!" Kaelynn clearly experiencing euphoria, and that leg advantage of hers made her hard to keep up with. She was jumping up, down, left, and right like there wasn't much to hinder her progress. Save for a few taller buildings. Reina and Marlou were almost alongside her, only slightly behind. Then Ryan, me and Jamie, followed by Yuki and Kwan.

"Dang, does she ever slow down?" Ryan asked.

"THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID."Screamed Jamie.

"WOW. JUST WOW." I had no idea when we were going to stop, but I figured Kaelynn Reina and Marlou would stop at the next obstruction. Other than that, I took in the details of this apocalyptic world. No one near us, bright sun, smoke blood and fire everywhere. And a gun that's getting heavier and heavier. I couldn't speak and run at the same time, in fact my ableness to be running next to Ryan and Jamie was strenuous. Suddenly I noticed Kaelynn stopped jumping, and waited for the rest of us. "Well I guess that means it's almost over'. True, but now we had the problem of getting off the building. We caught up to Kaelynn first, while the last duo were taking their time getting here.

"Well, what're we gonna do now Miguel?"

I was way too tired, not enough power, a psychopathic condition, and a lack of reason to lead, so I just gave up right there. "Ah screw it, Kaelynn, you take command of this group. I aint cut out for it, besides, you don't have any condition right?" I sat down on the roof's tiles exhausted, and waiting for Kaelynn's order.

Instead, I heard, "What? But! No! I don't wanna be the leader! I'M not made for it!"

"Shut up little pansies, ill just lead you all if your gonna fight about it. God..." Well, I can safely say we had our leader. Reina suddenly seemed much more intimidating, probably due to the lack of her weapon. I took check of their weapons again, Kaelynn with the jade sword, Marlou with the gauntlets, Jamie still with her short swords, Ryan with nothing, Kwan with what was Kaelynn's broadsword, Yuki with nothing, and Reina with nothing. Then I remembered something,

"Hey does anyone have those kunais from the school?"

Jamie answered, "Yea, I got them."

"Give me 3 of them please." She complied and pulled out 3 of 3 kunais and gave them to me, and I in turn gave them to Ryan. "Okay, so we've got everyone armed with something except Reina and yuki. You cool with that Reina?"

"Yea yea yea, just make sure not to shoot me with that gun. Anyways, come on, let's crawl down the building before a bunch of zombies get there."

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[Too lazy to write out the crawling down scene. you guys can imagine it right? :D]

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Once on the floor once again, we waited for our next order, which was to keep walking with Reina. None of us had any idea where we were going, and surprisingly it was Yuki who went to ask.

{Yuki PoV}

"Well, if I'm going to walk aimlessly, want to know where we're going." I mumbled to myself. I started walking faster to catch up to Reina, and asked her, "Reina, where are we going?"

She didn't even face me as she answered, "Well, I was going to go to my uncle's friend's workplace, which has a LOT of supplies."

"You were?"

"Well, I don't think all of us can make the trip. In honesty I don't think you could travel that far." That was true, I was never one for travelling long distances, but that didn't matter at the moment as I saw people up ahead.

"Hey, there's some people there, should we go meet them?"

The stopped moving and so did I, and the rest of our group stopped as well. Her eyes grew wide as she focused on the people approaching us, especially the one almost on the middle, and said, "Oh looky, People."

{Original PoV}

"Oh that's good, at least they're friendly. I hope." well, our hope was in vain. They were walking towards us at the same pace as an average zombie, but seemed to be lugging something behind them. It was still too far to be focused, but it was pretty big looking. To comfort myself I placed the gun at my shoulder and rested my finger on the trigger. I shrugged the feeling off and kept walking. 'I gotta bad feeling about this...'

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Once were close enough, still around 100 yards or so, to be able to focus on the group of 50 or so in front of us (Thank you gun scope), it became clear they were still human. It was also clear whatever was being carried was alive. Or at least moving in a very living fashion. We couldn't actually see it, but it was covered by a large tarp.

"Ahh, finally some other people!" Marlou called. "I was beginning to think we were the only things alive!" We were getting even closer now, and we all felt something was wrong. Reina was walking more cautiously, and everyone kept a tighter hand on their weapon.

Kill them all... make them mine...

Kill them all... make them mine...

Kill them all... make them mine...

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"Why hello thar! Quite a chipper day isn't it?" The man in the middle was a short, stocky man, with a long beard and signs of balding. "So, what bring ye kiddies here?"

"We were just heading somewhere." Reina was only slightly shorter than the man, and so she was still able to intimidate the guy. If it was him thinking.

"Oh really? Where ya headed? We might'n be able ta help you lot." The group was slowly approaching us, and we were already taking a defensive stance facing the tarp. Reina was flanked by Marlou and Kaelynn, while Kwan and Jamie were on either side of me and yuki. Ryan was behind us, facing backwards. "Ye know it's nice to reply to yer elders' right young ledy? If not I might hafta punish you..." Suddenly the man screamed in agonizing pain, then snapped his head back. "Stupid of me, I actually let him think." The voice coming from the body was unlike the accented voice previously. This one was much more powerful, and ancient. It seemed to echo with every word spoken, and was easily sounding like a threat.

Yuki was becoming more and more frightened and began to get uncomfortably close. Sheesh we needa train this girl, but she also told me one thing, "Look at the left..." I looked, and I only had a split second to shoot the human flying at me.

*BANG* the rifle recoiled, the bullet flew, and a body fell. The voice said nothing, but simply grunted, raised a pudgy hand, and snapped. Immediately the bodies around us lost color, and reverted back to almost normal zombies. "Well, at least they're slow." Said Kwan. Those words were taken back as soon as a zombie jumped at him, and he was forced to slice it to live. "DAMN THEY'RE FAST."

"Hehehe..." Another snap from the voice, and we were swarmed.

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"MARLOU LEFT! KWAN,BEHIND YOU!" We were barely hitting the supercharged zombies, and we've already sustained multiple hits. Jamie and Kwan were already bitten, but they weren't bleeding at all. None of the normal symptoms of corruption were occurring, so I assumed in exchange for speed, they gave up infectiousness. I didn't want to waste any ammo on targets I couldn't hit, so I just stabbed at what came close. Marlou was slugging at everything in his way, with no avail. Reina couldn't hit anything either, but Kaelynn and Jamie were able to kill 1 each. Kwan killed 2, and Ryan 0. In total, 6 zombies died out of 50. So 44 left. Whopee.

"HAHAAHA, DO YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL MY MINIONS? MY CREATONS ARE SPREADING EVERYWHERE ON THE GLOBE! Why try and survive, just be my slave." The voice was still coming from the little man's body, then I had an idea. I set the rifle safety off, then aimed for the little man's head.

"Buenos Noches, *****." I pulled the trigger, and the sound of a bullet through bones was simply marvelous. Immediately the super speed zombies stopped and fell to the ground. "GWAHAHHAHAHAHAA! MUST KIL-"

"Miguel!" Yuki slapped me out of my evil trance and said, "What was that? Keep yourself together!" Our group started resting and fixing itself with whatever we could find. I went to stab at the zombie's heads to make sure they were dead, then once I was finished with that I went to the tarp.

"What could be in here..." I lifted the cover of the tarp and dragged it away, and was treated to the smell of wet burning flesh. What was seen was infinitely more gruesome. "What the... What is this?" There was a zombie underneath it, but this was obviously unique. While most zombies were the size of their human predecessor, this was MUCH larger than any human. It had to be somewhere between 10 to 11 feet tall, with bulging muscles on its arms and legs, a lack of stomach flesh, so we could see its inner workings. The thing had something resembling an ants' jaw on either side of its human mouth, which was lined with broken, jagged, and toxic teeth. The final feature that made it unique were it eyes. They were a bright, burning red, actually, THEY WERE BURNING. There were flames spewing from the pupils, burning an ominous flame.

"Hey! You coming or not?" Marlou was calling me over, and the rest of the group was moving away from the area.

"Well, nothing else I can do..." 'Kid, keep your guard up, something's gonna happen. I can feel it.' I ignored his warning and proceeded to follow the rest.

"Kill them all... make them mine...

Kill them all... make them mine..."

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By the time we were safely away from the massive zombie, Chuck the inner voice was going ape****. 'Ohhhh no, we're screwed, god help us MOMMY!' I thought in the loudest thought possible 'SHUT UP! ITS WAY BEHIND US, AND I THINK WE'D BE ABLE TO SEE A 10 FOOT TALL ZOMBIE.' I thought him cringe in annoyance and remained silent for the remainder of the trip. After the better part of an hour, we all felt the ground shaking beneath us.

"Uhmm, anyone else feelin that?"

"Yea, I do."

"Me too! At least we're on a level surface, not much to fall on us."

In an optimistic thought, I hoped it was just a minor tremor and would do much, but like our previous situations, hope loved us not. Off to Jamie's right a fairly large fissure opened formed and split the earth with a loud crack.

"I'M BACK MY SLAVES!" The same ancient voice echoed from the crack, then with a display of fire earth and acid the massive zombie emerged.

"Oh. I guess chuck was right." and so our dance with the zombie devil began.

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	5. Chapter 5

WHOOOO CHAPTER 5 KIDDIES! :D I got some fans in real life, and when they read it they went crazy, AND AS A PART OF A SURVEEYYY, tell me in a review/PM if you went crazy after reading this :D Anywho, this chapter, is somewhat rushed. I tried to finish it in one day, but I ended up having to revise it due to chronological mistakes. And quick mention of my buddies in real life! Aka 'The Obsessors'! Btw guys, make an account will ya? Help this website get some more members x)0OH AND BETA READER. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. YOU. ARE. FIRED. Now that I'm done being so happy, read, review, flame, do what you will.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing, with the exception of my dignity, these characters, and a couple bars of Hi-Chew, I own nothing.

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HOTD Outbreak In America

Chapter 5

~War, Marines, a Big Guy, Ryan, and an Even Bigger Zombie~

"FOOLS, YOU CANNOT STAND AGAINST MY WRATH!" The thing aimed at Reina and spewed green acid all over the earth, burning everything that it touched. Reina saw this attack coming and jumped out of the way, just in time before the acid melted the ground where she just was. I placed a bullet in the things left arm, then dodged the rocks flying at me.

"HEY UGLY, OVER HERE!" Yuki was taunting the monstrosity, waving her throwing knife back and forth. "Yea that's right, get your ugly butt over here..."

The monstrosity spat at her with a massive blob of acid, there was no way she could avoid it, "YUKI!"...

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{Exactly 30 minutes ago}

"Huh, I guess Chuck was right." I dodged the initial wave of rocks that flew everywhere when he (I assumed it was a he) unburrowed himself. The second wave that followed I wasn't so lucky. I tried to block the projectile with my gun, but the large piece of rock hit me squarely in the chest and I flew back and thudded into a halt. I looked around at the state of my friends, and they looked fairly well off. Marlou, Jamie, Kaelynn, and Reina were all able to dodge both waves, while Yuki, Ryan, and Kwan only got hit by smaller fragments. 'See what I mean kid? I told you something was up, now get your ass up and go fight the thing!' "I figured you'd say that." I got up, picked up my gun, and began walking towards the seemingly Leader of the Zombies. I placed two bullets into its exposed gut, and it bellowed in pain.

"AWAY FROM ME CREATURE!" It hurled acidic needle-like things at my area, and probably would've' been reduced to a burning puddle of Miguel if Marlou didn't tackle me out of the way.

"Nice shot, but be sure to take cover when he does that. Got it?: I nodded agreement, then got up and shot at the thing again. This time, instead of destroying something, it peeled back its stomach cavity and released some 12 or 13 little blobby things. Those blobby things quickly took the shape of almost basic zombies, with slight differences. "OH comes on, now we got these to kill?" These zombies were pretty fast, long legged, and green-tinted. I assumed the green meant something bad, so I immediately focused on shooting them as my priority. They were already closing the distance between them and us, so I let loose 4 bullets into 3 of the mutated zombies and killed one, crippled the other, and completely missed the third. The sword fighters -and gauntlet fighter- were darting around the 'Leader', hacking at what they could reach and dodging retaliations. Jamie took a moment to look back at Me, Ryan, Yuki, and Reina, then went over to yuki.

"Take these, and make yourself useful." She threw down 2 of the throwing knives taken from the school then dashed back to the front lines, decapitating a zombie in the process. The girl who probably never held a weapon in her life took the knives from the ground and more or less did the same thing as before. Nothing. 'KID. BACK TO THE FIGHT.' I tore my view from her and placed it on the zombies, which were considerably closer now. Somewhere in this mess, me Ryan and Reina worked out a zombie-murder system. I would break a leg off of each zombie with gunfire, then Ryan and Reina would remove it from any further use. It worked up to the last zombie, then we all turned our attention to the Leader again. Ryan and Reina joined the group close to the Leader and began to help take it down. The thing had taken quite a beating and was looking more... dead than it was before. It lacked flesh on many areas, and the hole in the stomach was much larger. Our side took a beating too, Kaelynn was sporting a sore leg, and Marlou's swings were becoming less and less powerful. Overall they were getting tired, but we were making progress. I unloaded the rest of my ammo clip into the zombie's head, quickly reloaded and re-aimed.

"Enough of this play, I grow tired of this game." The Leader swung with both powerful arms and knocked everyone except Me, Yuki, Marlou, and Reina away. The rest went flying backwards, and luckily they were safe for now. If we couldn't stop the thing now, with half of our fighting force, we were all dead. 'Kid, no way that's happening while I'm here.' With a huge bellowing scream, the brutish zombie stomped the earth, and created a shockwave enough to knock us all off of the ground. It picked up Marlou then threw him at Kaelynn, who had regained barely enough strength to half-catch Marlou. Upon impact both fell unconscious and the zombie laughed yet again. "FOOLS, YOU CANNOT STAND AGAINST MY WRATH!" The thing aimed at Reina and spewed green acid all over the earth, burning everything that it touched. Reina saw this attack coming and jumped out of the way, just in time before the acid melted the ground where she just was. I placed a bullet in the things left arm, then dodged the rocks flying at me. What came next shocked everyone, even the zombie.

"HEY UGLY, OVER HERE!" Yuki was taunting the monstrosity, waving her throwing knife back and forth. "Yea that's right, get your ugly butt over here..."

The monstrosity growled and spat at her with a massive blob of acid, there was no way she could avoid it,

"YUKI!" Then our saving graces came in. There were 3, yes 3 military helicopters overhead, and one had dropped a massive amount of water to distill the acid.

"This is the USO Chopper Tango 3, prepare for bombardment." I desperately hoped they were referring to the zombie and not us, and this time my hope was true as all 3 choppers began an all-out barrage of steel on the Zombie.

"This is Tango 1, Tango 2 drop your units now, bring in fire support from all angles."

"This is Tango 2, roger that, deploying Marines and Grenadiers." One chopper stopped firing and flew off to the side then deployed too many men to all fit in that one chopper.

"Let's do this!' One of the marines opened fire on the zombie, and soon the rest followed. The grenadiers looked like armored marines, and instead of using a rifle, they were equipped with a something like a grenade launcher on each arm. Their supply of ammunition was on their back, surprisingly small for the size of the bullet impacts which wreaked havoc on the beast.

"Blow 'em all to hell!" The grenadiers took careful aim at the head, and blasted it simultaneously.

"HRWA-" the beast stopped mid-roar when its head became a pile of bones and flesh, which fell to the ground. The rest of the body followed suit, and we all celebrated silently. Awoken from the noise from the helicopters and mass of army fire, our group was all awake and happy. True, we were all damaged, tired, and probably scared out of our wits, but we were alive. Reina, Yuki and I were the only ones that were fine enough to walk around, and we all went to our not-so-lucky friends.

"Ha-ha, you two look good together." I kidded with Marlou, who was still lying on top of Kaelynn, who was holding him in the same position he was caught.

"Oh be quiet Miguel, you know how I am with females." We all shared a laugh and I left the pair for Jamie, Kwan and Ryan, along with Reina.

An unconscious Kwan was leaning against Jamie, who was awake, but her eyes were closed, while Ryan was up and looking around. "Hey we're all alive! Or we're all dead. Which is it?"

Reina giggled a small bit then sat next to Ryan and said, "We're all alive Ryan. We're alive." They both smiled and Chuck in my mind thought 'Jesus is EVERYONE getting attached to people? Humans and their emotions...' I laughed in my mind and went to check on Yuki, who almost died trying to help us.

"You alright? I mean, you were -that- close to being dead." I looked at her with troubled eyes and hoped she was okay.

"Yea, I'm okay. I only did that because I saw the Helicopters overhead. I didn't know why, but I knew if I threw myself there I could keep you two alive and not die. It was like a gut instinct of some kind." Speaking of Helicopters, the three choppers had landed and unloaded their full complement of troops. Well over 2 dozen grenadiers and marines exited 2 of the helicopters and were around the battlefield, and out of the remaining one exited a very powerful looking man and a group of specialized units.

"Why, these are merely children! Haha! Remarkable! Their combat prowess is amazing! You soldier, give them a space in your helicopter, NO wait, they'll ride in my helicopter! Yes yes, they deserve that much don't they? Don't they soldier?"

"Yessir. Absolutely Sir." The man seemed elated over us being only children, but we weren't gonna turn down a free ride out of here.

※※※※※

We got into the helicopter, which was much roomier on the inside than what the outside makes you think, and our leader was conversing with theirs.

"Well!" The man said in a large voice, "So you're all still children? Yet you managed to hold off the progress of one of the more evolved Cerebral Strains with only yourselves!"

"Yep, just us children. With no technology save for a fancy-looking gun. You know what, first things first, I'm Reina." She extended her hand to the large man, who took the hand and dwarfed it.

"And I am Jonathan Eliis Rompier! Just Jon, for short." He was large in stature, easily twice Reina's height, with very French and German features. "Now tell me Reina, how did your group manage to become so great in fighting? It would've taken 20 of my best men to have taken that down!"

"Easy, we weren't men. We were female." Jonathan laughed so loudly the pilot was surprised and wavered course for a moment. "Wow, easy laugher."

"No no no, I am simply euphoric that I have found people as potent as you are. Tell me, who is where on the hierarchy?"

Reina asked, "Come again?"

"Who's the leader, who does the thinking, is there anyone associated with caretaking?"

Reina shook her head in disappointment and replied, "Well, we don't really have a permanent leader. It used to be Marlou when we were finding our friends inside the school, then Miguel while we were escaping the school, as of now it's me. Other than that, there really isn't a hierarchy. Just a group of Friends trying to survive. Your turn, what is your group, why did you help us, do you have any food, and what the heck is a 'Cerebral Strain'?"

Jon laughing lightly then answered each question in kind. "My dear, our group is called the USO, acronym for United Survivor Organization. Our goal in this messed up world is to help any human we can find, bolster our forces, and fight a way to hamper down the progress of the horde. We helped you especially because of the kind of creature you were combating. Then to answer your question, the abomination you were fighting was called a Cerebral Strain. Cerebral Strains are one of the many mutations of living dead. Genetically enhanced zombies which had their virus reprogrammed to mutate differently."

Reina wasn't one to take in mass amounts of information at once, so she stopped him right there and sent me and Kwan to listen to his jargon. "Okay hold up buddy, tell this to my nerdy buddies and they'll understand it better. "

Jon said, "Very well, bring them here!" Kwan and I swapped places with Reina, then continued the conversation. "You are…?"

"Miguel, and this is Kwan."

"Very well! Your leader and I left off at what a Cerebral Strain was. Cerebral Strains are genetically enhanced zombies, capable of thinking and basic spawning."

Kwan asked, "So the thing that almost wiped us out was a Cerebral Strain?"

"Yes, and an almost matured one. How you 8 managed to survive it I don't know." Replied Jon. "Anyways, they are one of many, MANY variations, among them the Brute Strain, which has enormous strength and dexterity. The Spawn Strain, which can create plenty of basic zombies, and some of the basic Strains. One of the worst are the Hydra Strains, if you do not destroy a certain organ from its inner body it will continue to regenerate any damage it has taken. Let's wait until we get to base, where we have archives full of the creatures." Kwan went back to the rest of our group, but I stayed and began asking question after question after question.

"So, you're called the USO? What's it stand for?"

" United Survivor Organization."

"Ah, can you tell me about the marines that were shooting grenades?"

His eyes shone with excitement then began explaining the whole history of the Grenadier. "Haha, they are not shooting grenades. Rather they shoot concussive shells which can either slow a target with a very sticky substance, or burn them with a flammable one. Their ammo storage is indeed on the back of their armor, but the suit is special. It constructs hundreds of shells while in combat, so any man in a Grenadier suit can never say they're out of ammo!" I nodded understanding then asked him where we were going. "Ah, we are heading to an auxiliary USO base. We aren't allowed into the main base unless we have something pretty damn important." "I can understand why. So, any more questions for me?"

"Yes," He shifted in his seat then continued, "How do you feel about having another member in your group?"

I looked at him in disbelief, then asked, "Uhmm, well if he ca-" I was cut short by his laugh and he said,

"Oh no no no, she's a female. You see, my daughter is becoming a sort of hassle with my troops, so I was hoping that you could, you know, take her off my hands?"

"So you're asking us, a group of kids probably much younger than your daughter, to take care of her?"

"Preeeetty much."

I pondered about this for the remainder of the ride, then answered, "Sure, why not."

"EXCELLENT! Now come, we are at the base." We exited single file into a high area, standing over countless trees, and stood transfixed upon the building around us. On the outside, many advanced looking tanks were roaming around, rolling alongside large mechanical walkers and soldiers. All looked very sharp and pristine, even the engineers looked lethal in their work suits. We were invited into an elevator by a soldier then exited into a different room, and it was infinitely more pretty. All of the walls were a shining chrome-silver, and everywhere soldiers were relaxing, engineers working, and 2 individuals were playing a game of chess. Three doors led elsewhere in the base, which we would later discover and go exploring.

"Checkmate. I win again Cameron." A female stood up from the chessboard and walked over to us once she noted our arrival. "Why hello there, who might you all be?" she looked like a cheery individual, with long black hair and soft brown eyes. "Oh how silly of me, I'm Jenny!" She smiled and extended her hand. I went to shake it but was beaten by Ryan, who was shaking her hand vigorously.

Ryan introduced us all to her, "Hi, I'm Ryan. These ones here are Miguel, Marlou, Kwan, Jamie, and Kaelynn. Reina, and Yuki. Why are yo- oh." She was laughing at Ryan because while he was introducing us, never once did he let go of her hand. "Uhmm, anyways..." Just then, the other one playing chess came over.

"Hey guys, what'd I miss?" This one had shorter hair, only up to her shoulders, and looked very Chinese-Filipino. "I should introduce myself huh, well I'm Caaameron, I think you met jenny already?"

We all nodded yes, then Ryan asked jenny, "Not to be rude... but you guys have food? We haven't eaten since... When was it?"

"Of course! Here follow me." She walked to one of the doors, and opened it to reveal a hallway with more doors. She took the second door on the left which brought us to... THE KITCHEN! That's a bit epic sized. The place was like what you'd see at a restaurant, except there were only 4 cooks. "Charley! Pierre! Cook something nice for these guests! They're new here, so no Junlan Tiger yet." She left us for the lobby room, leaving us with a lot of food.

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After our meal, we made our way back to the first room we were in and found Jon at a table talking to Cameron and Jenny. And everyone staring. "Do we understand each other? Cameron, you have to stay with me. Jenny can handle herself out there, but you can't. You're too... fragile."

"UGH! EVEN IN A ****ING ZOMBIE WORLD YOU WONT LET ME DO ANYTHING!" She marched out of the room into the hallway and everyone became normal again.

Jonathan stood and asked us to come near, then informed us that jenny would be joining us. "Ah, Reina. I assume you know of the new member?"

Reina put on her curious face and asked, "No, I don't. So explain. N. O. W."

I quickly blurted out the whole story before she went crazy. "Uhmm Reina, Jon here wants us to add Jenny to our group. I already told him yes and," I leaned close and whispered to het, "I don't wanna argue with someone that big."

She took in a deep breath and said, "You are lucky, like really lucky, tat I need a nerd to remember things for me. Anyways, JON! We're gonna need some better weapons if we're gonna defend this many people."

Immediately he pointed to one of the three doors, and had one of his soldiers escort us to the weapons room. "AND DO SAY HI TO MY SON!" He screamed just before the door closed.

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Marlou was the first to walk into the room, and he became incredibly happy once inside. Once I was in, I see why. It was a very spacious room, and there were many drones, robots, and engineers around. One particular human stood at a wall, lined with HUGE guns. I looked around, and noticed the array of weapons that were there. There were guns ranging from the old crossbow to the newest Ballistic Missile launcher. Melee weapons of all kinds lined the walls as well, swords, scimitars, lances, all sorts of things. Even a metallic glove that had metal blades jutting out of its knuckles. When the large man left the wall, h approached us and introduced himself. "Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the weapons armory. I'm Jordan, just ask for anything and we've probably got it." We all took turns asking for some sort of weapon.

"You have any good swords?" Kwan asked.

Jordan laughed and said, "Yea! Here follow me." Kaelynn followed them, He showed them an entire line of swords.

While Kwan browsed the weapons, Kaelynn went to Jordan and asked, "Can you just repair this? Maybe strengthen it? But, can you also keep the designing?" She laid out the Jade sword and waited for his answer. Instead he took the sword and went to a desk and began work. "I guess that's a yes..." Meanwhile we were all looking for the right weapon for ourselves.

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Once we all had our new weapons, we looked pretty damn good for a group of kids. Kaelynn had a newly refined jade sword, much stronger and sturdier. Kwan had chosen a crossbow, but the bow limbs were sharpened and acted as a blade. Ryan chose a shotgun, and Jamie upgraded to dual scimitars. Reina donned a pair of steel claws, and so did Marlou, except his blades were longer and were more glove like. Yuki had chosen a small rifle, and I went for a very powerful sniper rifle. And a nice stark black coloring.

Jordan appeared behind me, then told me to follow him. He brought me to a door behind a wall, then led me to a small room, barely large enough for Jon to fit in, and in the room lay 2 cases, one very large, and the other thin, slender and long. 'That's what she said...' "Pick one." I had no idea what this was, so I just picked the longer case. He picked up the case then opened it, revealing a very advanced-looking gun. It wasn't my favorite color, black, but it was a nice shade of dark blue-purple. About the same length as my old rifle, it weighed slightly more, but the main difference was the barrel of the gun. The barrel, unlike most with the cylindrical barrel, was more 2 rods, connected by metallic spheres. "Like it? It's a rail gun. But slightly modified, instead of launching projectiles at supersonic speed, this baby will shoot a superheated ball of plasma. You can't fire it too rapidly, or else it'll overheat, but each shot will damage nearby targets."

"So what's in the other case?"

"Ol' Glory. The biggest, baddest, unnecessarily loudest, chain gun in this USO." I would've asked why he was giving this gun, but a very loud, blaring alarm went off. "Oh cr**, now? We just drove them off! Come on, let's go." With our newfound weapons, we headed back to the armory, then followed the chaos to the front hangar, where we originally entered. The rest of my group was there, looking at the chaos in the skies. Red and white USO scramble fighters were shooting at Yellow and blue aircraft.

I went to a soldier running back inside about what was going on, and he said, "Sarah's Crusaders! They're back again!"

"Sarah's Cru- what?" I was going to ask for more detail, but a missile from a Crusader aircraft destroyed a nearby tank. We were all blown back, some farther than others. "Damn, I needa ship to fight these guys... HEY JORDAN! You got a plane by any chance?"

"I'm on it! It'll take me a while to get these standbys working, go shoot em with the rail gun!" Heeding his advice, I lifted the rail gun, activated the auto targeting, and fired a flaming ball of plasma. I missed a ship, but the bullet was close enough to send a Crusader ship panicking, crashing into a USO fighter. Oops. I celebrated on in the inside, but what came next would bring the magnificent base crumbling to its knees.

An older soldier dropped his gun, then said into a speaker system, "Men, prepare all AA defenses, we got hundreds, yes HUNDREDS of-" He was cut short by an acidic ball decapitating him, then melting the rest of his body. This would be one loooooong fight.


	6. Chapter 6: Skies of Hell

Chuck here, speaking on behalf of Grimmling. So he said for me to tell you that this is chapter Six, and to read it and be happy! Very down-toning chapter, with one big fight. Slight fluff too :D Also, he is becoming very sick due to transfer of viruses via school, so chapter 7 and 8 may not be up until next month. That was intended for any fans of this story he may have, and his/my friends who won't stop bothering him/me to update. MAKE AN ACCOUNT GUYS. IT'LL HELP. Aaaaand quick mention of Castro (), who reviewed my story with descriptions of guns I didn't even think about XD and without further ado, OFF TO READING THE STORY CHILDREN! Reviews still make me and him happy... And yes, the chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but he's sick. DONT FORCE HIM TOO MUCH.

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"OPEN FIRE!" Jonathan fired an RPG at a Crusader ship, while I blasted flying zombies out of the sky. "Jordan! Hurry up and get the ships ready!"

"I'm working as fast as possible! Marlou you aren't doing anything, help me out here!" Marlou dashed over to Jordan, and began handing him what he needed. "Wrench! THE OTHER WRENCH." Meanwhile, Cameron had jumped into her specialized fighter jet, colored pink, black and white, and set off to help fight in the sky. The sight above was spectacular; Crusader fighters were destroying countless flying zombies, known as 'Hornets' by the soldiers, Flight Strain by official. The hornets looked like the average zombie, except the arms were wings, the legs were replaced by a pair of acidic cannons, and the eyes were completely black. Crusader jets flew in and out of the mob, destroying whatever it could hit. One particular plane was firing a very large gun mounted on the aircraft and emptying a mass of missiles, then I realized that that was the leader of Sarah's Crusaders. 'You mean Charley?' 'IT'S SARAH YOU DUMBASS.' Her plane was fighting a group of 5 Hornets, all of them behind her.

"Damnit! Kylie! Jefferson! Get over here and get these guys off my tail!" Two of the jets pulled out of combat then began shooting at the opposing Hornets. Two were eliminated, but the remaining three pelted Kylie and Jefferson with acid. Sarah pulled a very professional maneuver and destroyed the remaining Hornets with gunfire. She opened up a line to the USO base, and began speaking. "Damnit! I swear I'll regret this... USO! I'm calling a temporary alliance! I won't fire at you until these bugs are gone!" We received the transmission, and Jon decided to answer.

"This Jonathan Rompier of the USO. We heard your call. We will hold fire against your crusaders until all of the Flight Strains are gone. Then immediately every plane stopped shooting at each other, and faced the Hornets, Man vs. Beast, steel vs. flesh, living vs. dead.

"Alright! I got a combat chopper ready, and 2 fighter jets!" Jordan finally got the aircraft ready, and our group had a quick, wordless discussion about who goes where. Me, Kwan, Ryan, Jenny, and Reina got into the copter, while Jamie and Kaelynn manned the jets. Marlou and Yuki had nothing to pilot, so they just jumped into a few AA turrets and started blasting away.

Jonathan quickly explained the basic way to fight and fly to Jamie and Kaelynn, "Joystick controls movement, this lever is speed. Trigger here are the guns, and this button is to fire your L.A.Z.M. Long-range Anti Zombie Missile if you're wondering. They nodded understanding, and took off and joined the fight. As for our helicopter, turns out Reina could fly a helicopter. We took off with Reina at pilot, Kwan at co-pilot, Ryan and Jenny at the mounted turrets, and me next to Jenny with my rail gun. Enter the war.

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Jamie and Kaelynn were eliminating Hornets alongside Sarah and Crusader ships, while Cameron led the majority of the USO air force. Our helicopter, along with 3 others, were flying close by, providing some support fire to our allies.

"Alright, boys, and Jenny, grab on to something, we're going in!" She accelerated past the other helicopters, and into the front lines, joining the much more nimble fighters. Over the communications system, we heard Kaelynn screaming at us.

"Are guys crazy? The front lines of an aerial battle are no place for a helicopter!" I silenced her with a shot from my rail gun, and maybe 4 dead zombies. '4 out of thousands, I like those odds.' "Oh shut up, we'll cover you guys, just keep shooting them." From there, Kaelynn, Jamie, Cameron, and 2 more USO fighters came by to provide cover fire. In response I shot 4 plasmas at 4 different areas, and took down some 17 hornets.

"Grrr, even at this rate we won't be able to kill all of them!" Over the transmitter, I radioed the base. "Jon! There is no possible way for us to kill all of these guys! Start evacuating the base, we'll buy you some time." I waited for his response while shooting wildly, then his crackled among sounds of fire and explosions.

"This is Jon -KABOOM- Go, you guys run, take the copter. Tell everyone to use plan 9, they'll know what it is. We'll buy you guys a lot of time, JUST RU-" The connection broke between Jon and us, and Reina broadcasted the message.

"All USO Ships, Jon wants you guys to go plan 9." Immediately a clamor of voices crowded the commlines.

"What?"

"Plan 9? Why?"

"OHMYGODWE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

"Happyhappyhaaaaappyyy..."

Then a loud voice belonging to Jordan silenced all others. "SILENCE! Our leader wants us to execute plan 9, we execute plan 9. Do we understand?"

A chorus of voices all replied, "SIR YES SIR." We let the Crusaders listen in on the message, and had them escape. Quickly the sky was ridded of any artificial flyers, save for a few slow ships. Reina and Kwan kicked the helicopter into full speed away from the swarm. Kaelynn and Jamie eventually found us, but there was still a Marlou and a Yuki at the base.

"SH- THEY'RE STILL DOWN THERE!" I bellowed. I fired a round into a hornet chasing us, then said, "Reina, we HAVE to get them." I looked at her with pleading eyes, full of sorrow that even Chuck could feel, and the second she turned to face me, she turned the helicopter around.

Over the commsystem Jamie asked, "We goin back for Yuki and Marlou?"

Kaelynn replied, "Looks like it, let's just hope that the base isn't too badly overrun."

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While returning to the base, we were shocked by the sight in the sky. Among the thousands of hornets were hundreds of Crusader and USO fighters, launching missile after missile, and bombarding with endless lead. But that wasn't the most amazing thing. The most was the huge, like 16 and a half tanks huge, ship hovering overhead. It was the most powerful thing we had all seen, and it seemed like something from a sci-fi movie. Lined along the body and 'wings' of the ship were numerous laser batteries, which burned everything it hit. It didn't fly like the smaller fighters, rather it stayed hovering, like a giant guardian. On the front end of the ship was the name engraved. the 'USO Vartolameo, Sixteenth Operational Orbital Cruiser' Once we were done marveling at the cruiser, we set off into the still clean base, and found Marlou and yuki in the hangar, trying to get a helicopter working. Kaelynn and Jamie pulled in with their vehicles, then came out and joined us.

"Yuki! How do I do this?" Marlou screamed.

"I don't know! Do I look like a girl who can fix a helicopter!" indeed she looked like a very cute anime character, not a mechanic.

Kwan shouted at them, "HEY! LET'S GO WE DONT HAVE ALL DAY!" Both of them looked over at us and Yuki began walking toward us while Marlou abandoned the helicopter. Marlou went to Kaelynn's side, while she checked on him masking sure he was fine. Yuki awkwardly walked behind me, so I turned around and gave her a tight hug. If I knew that was the last time I'd see her, I would never have let go.

"I'm never letting you out of my sight got it Yuki?" She nodded then we let go of each other, then walked back to our chopper. Once back in, we all went back to our original positions, except for Marlou, Jamie, and Kaelynn, who were in the back. Yuki decided to stand near me, using the frame as a balance.

Reina said, "Everybody buckle up I'm takin us out." She gunned the throttle and we shot out of the hangar, back into aerial hell.

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"This is USO Cruiser Vartolameo, any surviving fighters, crusader and USO, respond. Over." A familiarly deep voice came from the ship, which was commanded by Jonathan himself.

"This is Cameron, callsign Pixie, I'm here."

"Sarah of the Crusaders reporting!" 24 other aircraft responded, then Jon continued,

"This is Jonathan Rompier, commander of the Vartolameo, are those ALL the ships alive?"

A young USO pilot responded, "Yessir, squadrons Alpha, Tango, Jiangxi, Pixel, Theta, and Gamma are all gone. It's just us, Beta and Guillo squadrons left." The Vartolameo kept firing blast after blast into the swarm, but the swarm sent more Hornets than they could handle. After a long moment of thought, Jonathan announced his plan.

"Men and women, this will most likely be your last day on this planet. If you want to flee, do so now. I will forgive you when I die." One plane left. "Well then. 23 fighters, 1 cruiser, and 10,000 zombies. May this battle be the greatest." A loud symphony of voices celebrated, and all charged the enemy. The swarm surrounded them in no time, and we lost all sight of them.

Reina sped us up slightly then said, "Might as well go to sleep guys, it'll be a fairly looong ride." I listened to that, and decided to strap myself in and go to sleep. Before I fell asleep, I felt a body lean against me, shuddering and cold. I fell asleep.

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"RISE AND SHINE MY BUDDIES!" Kwan was up, and screaming at everyone to get up. He and Reina had taken turns flying, so Reina was asleep in the copilot seat. "WAKE IT UP, WE'RE ON GROUND NOW!" True, it was bright daytime on a very grassy plains. I felt fairly rested after the helicopter ride, but the dream I had almost ruined the pleasure of it. 'Yo kid, you alright? Your head is in a serious mess right now. I should know, I live here.' 'Yea, I'm fine. Just, if you think Yuki's in danger, tell me. Please?' Chuck mentally sighed then thought 'Alright buddy, if I get some precognition sense.' I looked around at the still sleeping Yuki, but quickly turned away from her. I saw Marlou and Kaelynn leaning against each other, Ryan and Jenny standing awkwardly near one another, and Kwan and Jamie just chilling. Jamie and Reina was still sleeping, along with Yuki. She looked so peaceful in her sleep, a small smile present on her lips. One hand was tucked underneath her head, the other against her chest, gently rising and falling in time with her breath.

Kwan noticed my 'staring' and said, "Hey, quit staring. It's kinda stalker-ish. Watching people sleep. That's creepy." I quickly turned away from her, a slight blush appearing as she started to wake up. "See?"

"In my defense, I am not staring!" I glared at Kwan but just decided to leave him be. "Well Kwan, where we headed now?"

"Well," Kwan started, "That's why I landed us. We were running out of gas so I kinda landed here." Jamie woke up from her sleep and grabbed her weapons, then walked over to Jenny and Ryan, and breaking apart the awkwardness.

"They so like each other." I jumped at the sound of Yuki's voice suddenly behind me. "I mean, its kinda obvious, look at them, just standing awkwardly. Then Jamie comes along. Gawsh."

I chuckled lightly at her perceptiveness, then asked the now awake Reina, "Hey Reina, where we goin now?"

She fondled her metallic claws while thinking then said, "Actually, I don't know. I'm actually kinda scared, because I don't know what to do." indeed, she looked nervous. Wringing hands, shifting feet, the normal stuff. "I'm used to knowing what to do, but now that we're all like, on our own... I dunno."

I put my hand on her shoulder and said a comforting, "It's alright. You're the leader for a reason. I'm sure you can think of something."

She stopped acting so nervous for the time being, and she gave her first command of the day. "Alright, let's go! We're headed..." She spun in the direction we didn't come from, "THAT WAY!" And so our trek began.

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After 9 hours of walking, climbing, falling, stabbing stray zombies, and awkwardness, we finally got to a suitable location, with a mass of trees for shade and possible shelter. Jamie piped up and asked, "Are we going to sleep on the branches or the grass?"

Ryan began, "I think we should sleep on the trees becaus-" And Jenny finished, "e zombies can't climb. So we'd be safer from them on the trees." Ryan looked at her with a raised eyebrow then uttered, "Yep. Exactly."

Kwan said, "Well we can all climb trees right?" All of us nodded yes, and climbed. We helped each other reach the higher branches, especially Reina with her reach disadvantage. We were now some 20 feet off the ground, silently wishing the USO would come back and save us.

As if reading my mind, Kaelynn said, "With a ship that big, I think the USO survived that attack. Plus the crusader and USO fighters, not to mention their base defenses." I nodded agreement, then continued climbing so I could see over the treetops, and just looked at the miles upon miles of plains. Not a single zombie in sight. We could actually rest easy for once...

I climbed back down to find everyone sleeping ear their 'partners'. Marlou and Kaelynn were one branch apart, Kwan and Jamie on adjacent branches. Jenny and Ryan were on a very large branch, while Reina was, sadly, alone. Yuki was 4 branches from her, so I decided to rest 1 branch from yuki, and 3 from Reina. I then slipped away into fairly peaceful dreams, and the bleak landscape that was once my nightmare.

It was a shining grey, with a blinding fleck of light in the distance. Silhouettes of people from my life were all there. Camille, the now-dead Katie and Brandi, my current group, even an old group of friends used to be known as 'The Asian Herd'. So many of their figures were imposed there, but it wasn't just people from my life. There were people I didn't recognize at all. A very large man who never left the side of a very skinny woman. A pair of triplets and a few twins were running around the landscape. And in here, Chuck was a tangible being. The was definitely not humanoid, but rather resembled more of a Jaguar-Puma-Rhino thing. He was colored pitch-black, and when he spoke, or thought, his eyes glowed slightly. 'Welcome back buddy.'

In this world, you don't speak to communicate, but rather just think. You can also direct you your thoughts are toward, so only certain members in this place can hear you. I thought to him 'Never thought I'd be back. I guess you live here?' He thought back, 'Yep. This place is my residence. And a secluded part of your brain. When you get all stressed, this place fills with water. When you're angry, it get really, REALLY warm. Then when you're sad its gets freezing.' I asked him, 'So, do I like, just stay here awake while I'm sleeping? Or do I actually get to feel like I'm sleeping?'

He smiled in his strange body and thought, 'You can feel like you're sleeping. Just…rest. You'll wake up normally.' I heeded his word and closed my eyes and waited for sleep to come. And so it came.


	7. Forgotten Memories, Ancient Loves

FINALLY The ever so postponed chapter 7. XD The following letters of text contain a fair amount of fluff, and may sadden the rest of you once you read about the... thing.

Chuck: Just let them read the chapter...

Me: Finefinefine.

Disclaimer: Own nothing. Except mah SHINY NEW nothing. Still nothing.

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~Highschool Of the Dead, Outbreak in America~

~Chapter 7~

~Forgotten Memories, Ancient Loves~

I woke up the first time in my mind. The bleak land in which I was in eventually ended up being called 'The Void'. I sat up on the invisible rock behind me, and watched as chuck chased around some of the presences. Apparently he noticed my awakening, as he walked over to me shortly after I woke. He thought, 'Heh, good morning gloomy.' I smiled slightly at him and thought back, 'Morning to you too chuck. Now how do I wake up?' I was feeling awake, but I was still in my mind. Chuck answered, 'Well, ya see that tiny bright light? Yea don't walk there. Here, take this and drink it.' He handed me a vial of bright purple liquid, don't ask me how he gave it to me. I opened it and drank down the contents, then waited...

...and waited...

...and waiiteeddd...

THEN I woke up. It was still before dawn, and I was still on the same branch. No one else was awake, but Reina was in a position suggesting she would fall. I silently navigated the branches to her, and then slowly proceeded to move her to a safer position.

She started stirring in her sleep, and cracked one eye open. "Bon Qui Qui what are you doing? Are you trying to molest me in my sleep?" She sat up from her now-safe position and rubbed her eyes. She yawned lightly, proceeded to crack her back, and then looked at me. "So, what brings you to this very early moonset?"

I searched for the moon, which was truly setting. It was barely underneath the horizon, but just enough to give a mysterious glow.

"Ehh, Chuck woke me up."

She looked at me questioningly, and asked, "Chuck? Who's chuck?"

I cursed to myself, interrupted by a chuck thought, 'Hey, someone might as well know about me.' "Well Reina, I'm sure you remember my uh... condition?" She nodded yes. "Well, the reason I never killed anyone at school was because of a bunch of doctors appointments I go to. They would shoot me with radiation that eventually triggered something which manifested into Chuck, my inner voice."

She raised one eyebrow then said, "Miguel you are the weirdest boy I have ever met." She smiled a cute smile then laughed, followed by a question. "So chuck, he's like a second person in your head?"

"Yep, we talk with thoughts a lot."

"Oh really? What's he saying now?"

She turned to watch the moonset while I stayed quiet for a minute while listening to Chucks message, then repeated, "He said, 'HEY ARE YOU TALKIN TO THIS GIRL. GO WAKE UP THE CHICK YOU LIKE. THAT-' then Ima censor the name here. Now he's screaming at me to finish it."

She smiled again and said, "its okay, I don't need to know that much." A cold breeze swept past us, rustling the trees and swaying the nighttime grass. She shivered as the wind blew by, but I was unsure what to do. I simply decided to do nothing, which was good since she was scooting closer by her own will. "It's funny."

"What is?"

"Look at us. We barely knew each other before this ordeal began, and now we're sitting on trees, staring at a moonset with a touch of zombies."

I inhaled deeply through my mouth then exhaled through my nose, then said, "It took a near-apocalypse, thousands of dead people, and hundreds of thousands dead zombies for us to get to actually know each other." I chuckled at that thought then added, "And chuck."

She asked, "Did he tell you to add that?"

"Nope."

"Nice. Now if only I had something... different to me, we'd be a bit more similar."

I looked at her and with a comforting tone said, "Reina, you've managed to lead a group of 8 underage children through a crazy world, all while keeping your cool. On top of it all, you've managed to tolerate some guy who might kill you out of habit. I think that's something different."

She grew a slight tear in her left eye, smiled and said, "Thanks Bon Qui Qui."

"No problem... Hime." And together we watched the moon fall. Then fell asleep once more.

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"RISE AND SHINE CHILDEN! PAPPY MIGUEL'S GOT A SURPISE!" One by one the group got up, more or less annoyed.

Kwan wiped his face and shouted angrily, "WHAT! WHAT SURPRISE COULDPOSSIBLY BE SO IMPORTANT TO WAKE ME FROM MY DREAM OF ME AND JA-"

He stopped himself mid-sentence as Jamie looked at him awkwardly. "Uhm dude, you were dreaming of me?"

Kwan stammered. "Wel- Sorta- More or les- Not really- I mean I did bu- NEVER MIND." Everyone but Jamie and Kwan laughed, then went back to what they were doing. Jenny and Ryan were laughing their asses off, Marlou and Kaelynn were on the ground play fighting (with claws and sword I may add), while me and Reina were silently next to one another.

Yuki came over to join us and sat opposite me on Reina's other side. "Hey guys～!" We unanimously said hello then just stared at each other. To break the awkwardness, you asked, "What you two been doooooooin?" She smiled a captivating, but at the moment annoying, smile.

I assembled a quick response, "What do you mean?"

I glanced over at Reina to see if she thought the same thing I was.

"Naaah, we've done nothing."

Yuki pouted in disappointment but didn't press for anything. "Okay then, bye! I'll leave you two alone." With that she jumped off the branch and landed perfectly on the ground.

Reina told me, "You really need to spend some more time with that girl."

"Whaddya mean?"

"Well, seeing as you saved her, it's only fair you talk to her a bit more." I hated when people were right, unless it was me of course, but she had a point. "Let's watch Marlou and Kaelynn go at it."

"That's what she said."

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"You giving up yet?"

"Not in your lifetime!" Kaelynn and Marlou were sparring, but to anyone that didn't know them it would seem like a very angry fight. Considering Kaelynn was a lot taller than Marlou was. Kaelynn swung at Marlou overhead, while Marlou parried with one claw and struck with the other. Kaelynn dodged the hit, and returned with a jab to Marlou's stomach. Marlou sidestepped, then grabbed the sword by its hilt, covering Kaelynn's hand. Suddenly Kaelynn jerked the sword free and knocked Marlou back with a kick to his gut. She aimed her sword at his throat then said, "I win."

Marlou smiled at her, dismissed the sword, and Kaelynn helped him to get up. "Well that was fun."

Kaelynn smiled and replied, "Sure was! But we can't do that wherever. People who don't know us would think that we're really fighting."

"True." Marlou was the kind of person if you didn't know how to read, would seem like a normal person. But I knew him long enough to know he had a little something for Kaelynn. When he liked someone, he tended to be a bit less shallow, even cheery if he really liked that person. Now that I think about it, they were a perfect match. They both loved to fight close-quarters, had similar personalities, even thought the same way sometimes. Marlou was talking to Kaelynn about clothing at the time, and said, "So uh... you think we'll ever be able to change our clothes?"

Kaelynn quickly looked at her clothing, and then almost panicked when she realized how dirty her clothes were." OH MY GOD, MARLOU LOOK AT THIS!" She pulled at her second shirt and showed him the stains that she seemed just to notice. Just now. "I MEAN, WE'VE ALL GOT BLOOD ON US, BUT IT'S SO GROSSS!"

"Come on Kaelynn! We can find some chick who's got some clean clothes and we'll borrow those. Or take em. If she's already dead." Marlou said.

Kaelynn looked a him strangely then said, "Is that your way of comforting a girl?"

"I don't usually comfort girls. I usually make things worse. SO I'm not used to it."

Kaelynn slapped him lightly then put her arm around his shoulders. "You'll find out once you get a girlfriend." Right then, I think chuck screamed to himself while I knew that Kaelynn and Marlou would definitely be together. Kwan interrupted my train of thought by pointing out the figure running toward us. "Uhh, running person?"

I looked more intently at it, then noticed a faint glow. "Ohhhh ****. Big zombie coming up guys, let's start moving. Everyone began to get whatever they had then ran away from the zombie. We were all sprinting for our lives, but I was the only one seeming to struggle. Everyone looked fine running, jenny looked like was enjoying it. But I was breathing hard, arms and legs already sore, the burning feeling in your shoulders attacking. "Good god I'm fat..." I decided to tough it out a bit longer, then ended up tripping over my feet. I flew in the air, flipped twice, then landed with a painful sounding crack. "AHHHHHHSH-" My left leg was bent at an odd angle, I wouldn't be surprised if it broke.

Reina and Yuki heard me scream, and the rest of the group ran back to help. "Wow Bon Qui Qui, break your leg falling on your feet right after a moonset."

Jamie, Ryan and Kwan pulled up on my left, and Jamie began wrapping something around my leg. It burned, a lot, but at least it stopped bleeding. "There, now don't fall again we've..."

"We've what?" she pointed out where the glowing zombie was, and it was there, followed by a HUGE monstrosity. Easily 30 feet, it wielded a streetlight in one hand, and the other was nonexistent. It opened its mouth, and then released an ear-splitting roar. "We've got company. Huh, I wonder how we missed that in the first place."

Kaelynn and Marlou readied their weapons and unanimously asked, "Let fight it?" They got a variety of answers.

"Sure, I'm up for it."

"Why not?"

"Mmmmkay."

"Well...as long as you don't die!"

"KEKEKEKEKKE-" Everyone stared at me after I said that, then ran into the fight that scarred me forever.

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Any guys out there, there's always one thing to remember: if you have a girl you like, they will eventually take your heart, rip it into puny shreds, burn them into ash, then throw them into a box, then they'll burn THAT box. Then she disappears and you have no idea what happened, so you can't go through all that closure s*** they usually want you to. Then that's followed by you shooting a couple hundred balls of fire into the huge zombie that took her from you. Flaaaashback...

"BURN BABY BURN DISCO INFERNOOOOO!" I went gun crazy, and since the rail gun never runs out of ammo, I could shoot however often I want to. I placed an excess of 6 bullets in the things head, 3 into its eye, and another 4 into the... private area.

"Miguel you are messed up." Yuki and I were standing side by side, shooting at the creature and whatever spawned from it. It didn't spawn much, just a few miniature versions of itself. But we didn't wanna take any chances so we killed them as they spawned.

Miguel said, (yes, Miguel said)"Well, it's a zombie. If something falls off there, we know it's a guy.

Yuki slapped me a good one in the face then told me, "YOU PERV!" Then she exploded in a giggly fit. "I swear if we knew each other earlier I'd..."

There was a pause in both of our firing as I tried to finish that sentence with what I hoped for. "Uhm..."

"Let's just keep shooting." I nodded and continued to pepper the Zombie. "Hey Miguel?"

"Yes?"

"Is it considered weird to ask someone out while they're fighting in a zombie-infested world?"

I took a moment to think about it, and why she would ask me. Of all people me, the guy she knows has a voice in his head, and kills people by habit. All the while keeping fairly good aim. 'Hey kid, she's waitin.' I looked at her, then made the mistake of looking into her eyes. Those deep brown eyes would suck any straight man and lesbian female in, and they would not let you go. "Uhh... no? Why you ask?"

She sighed and said, "Well, before this entire thing happened, and everything was normal, I always got asked out, but I never said yes to any of them."

I looked at her and asked Chuck on what to do, all I got was a 'Humph, not my problem kid.' "Why not? They're not to your liking?"

"Well... they were, I mean they were usually seriously hot, and geniuses sometimes, but they never really made me feel happy. Like really happy."

"Oh, so why do you bring this up now?"

Yuki aimed her gun down and breathed deeply, "Because Miguel. I was thinking of asking you."

There was a break in gunfire, but I kept my gun up. Good thing too. Just as I was about to reply, a wall of earth flew everywhere, knocking our fighters and us back. I reached out to grab Yuki but ended up being hit by a rock. The reason it was good to have my gun up was because of the discharged plasma that destroyed a would-be lethal chunk of rock. After the dust had settled, everyone went back to their original positions. I went looking for Yuki underneath a pile of rubble, and found her arm sticking out of the pile. "Phew that was lucky..." I started digging her out, then when finished saw an unconscious Yuki. Alive, but unconscious. "Well, at least she's light." I picked her up and slowly made my way to a nice spot to put her down. I put her down and began shooting the zombie from that location. In my mind, chuck was belting out orders on where to shoot. '12 into an arm, 2 melt the weapon, 4 into the head, now wait for the thing to cool down.' "Hey chuck?" 'Yea kid?' "You wanna control my body? Do the fighting for me? I have no idea if it'll work, but if you want we could try." 'ARE YOU KIDFING ME? HELL YEA LETS DO IT! And that's what she said.'

※※※※※

After the little ritual, chuck was now in control of my fleshy body. I was in his usual spot, and on the... wall? Was a note saying, 'Imagine the place anyway you want, it'll change to suit your need.' "Alright then..." I closed my eyes and imagined a part of my brain as a filing cabinet, and presto it's there. "Wow, that was easy."

{Meanwhile...}

Guy who voices the easy button: "..."

{Back to the story}

I started filing through the databanks of my mind, and started remembering so many things. The time I set a cow on fire, the day I got slapped by the chick I had a crush on, my revenge on that chick. Oh so many memories. I shifted to another folder, then picked out one labeled Malina-Kim Yukimoto. "What the..." it was actually a very thin folder, containing only 3 'pages' of info. The first one was the basics, name, age, race, etc. the 2nd was more interesting, and I read aloud, "Malina-Kim Yukimoto was once a classmate of mine. In 6th grade science, math, history, and English classes, she was always the top student in the grade. A car crash one day led to a near breakdown of mine. Since then she has had no recollection of anyone, with only lingering memories of those close to her. See page 3 for list." Turned to the third and final page, and read those names silently.

"Dr. Kawahira -1st person seen after crash.

Mr. /Mrs. Yukimoto -Parents

Jun Yukimoto -Elder Brother, age unknown.

Niwana Yukimoto -Elder Sister, age unknown.

Miguel Rikuma-Grade School Crush

Megaera -Best friend since 2nd grade.

Reina Cen -Best friend since 2nd grade.

Ch-" I stopped myself and read the last couple of lines. "Miguel Rikuma... THAT'S ME! Wow she knows Reina too... cool." I sat down in the imagined chair and processed this new information. Apparently. She wasn't even Yuki. She was Malina-Kim, who was an acquaintance of mine since those days way back when...

"HEY KID! HURRY UP AND SWITCH BACK, WE GOT THE THING DEAD! BUT YUKI AINT NOWHERE!" I snapped back to reality and nearly fell over. I surveyed the greatly changed landscape, which was now very burned, bloody and dark. The zombie lay spread-eagle on the ground, and so was Marlou. 'He's alive, just lying' down.'

I looked at my group, all of whom were dirty, and in not much better condition than I was. My clothes were intact, but were burned and soiled. Jamie's, Reina's, Kwan's and Marlou's clothes were like mine, but Kaelynn, jenny and Ryan suffered otherwise. Jenny lacked part of her bottom wear, and there was a rip in her top near her stomach. Ryan's shirt was all but shreds; thankfully there was a tank top underneath. Kaelynn's clothing suffered the most, her shirt was cut everywhere, pants burned enough to be considered shorts, even those thing females wear on their legs were soiled. 'You mean pants?' chuck could be an idiot when he wants to. But I don't think he's trying.

Marlou got up from his rest and said, "Well Reina, we're mostly here. Tired and beaten, but we're good."

Reina glanced at me, sure I had noticed Yuk- Malina's absence. "Well... most of us. Let's go, I don't think there's anything left for us. Or we could rest for the night, your choice." The vote was 7-1, 7 for resting with 1 being my lack of vote. "Well, looks like we're resting. Come on Miguel, let's go." We all walked with our partners and set off for last night's tree.

※※※※※

Once we were there, I sat on the branch Malina slept on, which had a very nice view of the stars. I looked up, staring into the void that seemed endless, mysterious. I felt the tears come. The void looked so enticing, clouded by tiny water droplets near on eyes, creating the blurred illusion of space. I let the tears fall.

I heard some branches crack, and movement below me, but I dismissed it as I stared into space. I pointed to myself the constellations, Orion, Taurus, The Geminian Twins. "Hey." I heard Reina's voice, but didn't turn my head. I just nodded knowing she was there, and she sat next to me. "Uhm... I heard about Yuki going missing... I thought you'd be... you know..."

I still didn't turn, but kept my view up. I did say however, "Malina."

"What?"

"She's not Yuki. It's Malina-Kim Yukimoto."

I turned my eyes to her, and she dropped her jaw. "Wait... you mean THE Malina? That genius from way back when!" I nodded, and she continued. "That's her? Wow! I had NO clue, at all. She looks so... different! Mature and whatnot." She trailed on as I let my mind wander, let it think itself to sleep. Sleep came with many tears. Reina finally acknowledged I was asleep when she heard my snoring, and chuck told me the following morning what she said. "It's alright Miguel, you'll get over her like every other girl who's broken your heart one way or another."

※※※※※

'Love -The human feeling accompanying synergy, can be very useful and dangerous under different circumstances.'


	8. New Friends

WHOOOOOOOOO! ALMOST CHAPTER 10! Okay so what if im a couple chapters early, cant i celebrate? D: Anyways, here's Chapter 8. As a side note, if you wanna add something unnecessarily large in a story, put teh government in there somewhere :D Anyways, here's chapter 8. OH And if anyone religious is reading this, im an atheist, so when you read Lucifer, LIVE WITH IT. Besides im gonna us Virgilia mostly. Okay, i think im done... NOPE not yet. Okay now i am.

DISCLAIMER: I own not Highschool of The Dead, nor do i own Umineko No Naku Koro Ni. Which i highly recommend to people.

※※※※※

HOTD Outbreak in America

Chapter 8

New Friends

Why do you do this to me...?

How do you not remember...?

Why do you do this so easily...?

You could've told me before it happened...

You make it hard to smile because

You make it hard to breathe...

Well, I guess I need to let go...

Why do you do this to me?

I was in a mental corner of my mind, just sitting and growing the mushrooms that represented the level of my mental stress. Currently there were some 6 dozen growing, already 3 and a half dozen were done. 'Hey kid... you alright?' I looked at Chuck's feline form, then thought back, 'Does it look like I'm alright'?' I turned back to my mushroom farm and prodded at one with a sharp stick. 'Listen kid, it's indefinite if she's dead, we never found her body. So if you keep hoping she's alive, well...' I stopped to look at Chuck for a while, then told him, "You know what? You're right." I threw the stick at him and woke up, and found myself on the same branch I saw the moonset on. "Wow, I guess I fell asleep here." I looked around for my group, and found them all sound asleep, same positions as last time. I turned back to the night sky, and listened to the music in my mind. For some reason, the same song kept playing over and over in my mind. It was called 'Naze doushite kimi wo suki natte shimattandarou?'. I remember being able to play it on the piano, and my hands began to unconsciously move. Douuushite. Kimi wo suki Ni natte Shimattan daro...

Tonight the sky was cloudy, with only patches of star and moon revealed. It felt strange, those same white, puffy clouds during the day were now black, nearly invisible and ominous. "Why did I fall in love with you..."

"Because you're just a human." I turned my head to find none other than Reina. Behind her Jenny, who was next to Ryan.

I whispered to them, "What're you guys all doing awake?"

Ryan said, "Well jenny here wouldn't shut up about... well, things. Reina I think was up the whole time." Reina nodded and sat to my left me, Ryan and jenny to my right. "So what are you playing on your imaginary piano?"

I withdrew my hand and put them into an awkward folded position. "Nothing, so what were you guys talking about?" Jenny began to speak but Ryan cut her off by saying they were going back to bed. "You mean branch?" Pwned moment.

Reina threw her head to the side to clear the hair out of her eyes, then commented on the clouds. "Funny how those same clouds in the day, all white and puffy,"

"Look dark and mysterious at night." I finished.

"Yep, dark and mysterious." She leaned back to look at the night sky, and in doing so exposed her slim figure a bit more. 'Kid, HOW can you be such a pervert after the incident?' 'Is that my nickname from now on? Kid?' 'Uh-huh, got that right kid.' "So Miguel, how're handling the 'Yuki's disappeared' thing?"

I looked down at the ground and thought before replying. "Ehh, I'm doing better. I'm not gonna be liking anyone soon." 'You are so lying to yourself. Kid Reina's looking pretty good to ya isn't she?' I projected a Minotaur to chase Chuck around to keep him busy, and asked of Reina, "Why you ask?"

"Well you looked like some part of you died after you realized it, and things like this take longer to leave guys than it does girls."

I Chuckled and said, "Girls get rid the feelings by endless tears."

"I am sure you're one of the few who are heartless enough to get over it in 3 days!"

"Well I'm also one of the few that has a second voice."

I smiled triumphantly before she added, "And a murderous condition." I almost instantly whirled around and grabbed her by the throat, raising her slightly off the tree. If she hadn't choked out one single word, I don't think I would've been able to stop. "O- ou- ouch..." I loosened my grip and brought her back to the branch, far enough away from me. I felt like **** on the inside, regretting what I just did. "It's alright, I forgive you. Just gimme a hug and we're even." I looked at her confusion, then at her outstretched arms. I moved close enough for one hug, but felt a needle puncture my arm. I looked at Reina and found one embedded into her thigh. Then I felt incredibly drowsy, and fell into unconsciousness.

※※※※※

When I awoke, I was in a bind. My eyes were covered with a cloth, my hands and feet bound my rope. I was lying in the ground, right side against the floor. I tried speaking only to find my mouth was gagged.

"Grawhgdb..."

"Ahh shut it." A feminine voice said." The only ones that can talk right now would be the tall one and the short one.

"Kaerynn? Reiaa?"

I heard squirming noises near me, which I assumed were the others. It felt very spacious, like we all had a lot of room to move. Then a door flung open, hit the wall with a loud 'DONG' sound, and the space suddenly seemed much smaller. I heard the movement of chairs, and the sound of a man sitting. His voice was old, yet stern and gruff. "Alright ladies, I'm gonna ask some questions. And you're gonna answer them. Understand?"

Kaelynn and Reina said, "Yes."

"Good! Now let's begin." He placed something on a table, I assumed it was in front of him, and asked, "What are your names? Only the first is needed."

"Kaelynn."

"Reina."

"Good, now tell me who the rest are."

Reina said, "Marlou, Jenny, Ryan,"

Then Kaelynn finished, "Kwan, Miguel, and Jamie."

The interrogating man then continued, "How many of your group has died in the past 6 weeks?"

"Three. Katie, Brandi, and ... Malina."

"What weaponry do you have?"

Kaelynn took a moment, probably looking at our weapons which had been left with them, then answered, "1crossbow, sword thing, 2 metallic claws, 2 scimitars, 1 jade sword, a rifle, a... shotgun? And a plasma, gun, thingy."

"Raiigun."

"Rail gun. Sorry."

The female voice in the room whispered, just barely audible. "Mr. Godf... think... gun... alli..."

The voice then faded, and the large man clicked his fingers. 2 hands quickly destroyed the cloth on my eyes, and the restraints on my limbs. "SO. What do we have here..." The questioning man rubbed his hands, then looked directly at each one of us. "Heh, guards, take 'em to the cantina. They look starved."

A group of 6 guards, 4 female, 2 male, all dressed in black skin-tight uniform appeared in the doorway, and took each of us to separate areas in the building. Some were being led by the same guard, which implied they were going to the same place. I was unlucky enough to get a very pushy, if not shapely, female guard. Mostly pushy. "Come on, we don't have all day, nightfall's coming soon." I quickly obliged, and followed her around to a very... formal, dining area.

Many men and women in various clothing sat at various tables doing various things. A group of men were speaking of philosophy, while right next to them others were gambling. A man and woman in very formal attire were at a table, looking tense at each other. "Uh..."

The guard, who had been wearing a mask the whole time, grabbed me and sat me down forcefully on a fancy-feeling chair. "Okay, first things first, don't speak loudly. Second, don't look at anyone in the eyes. Third, do NOT go anywhere without me. Fourth, try and shoot me with that fancy gun, I'll have a knife in your head before one round gets out. And lastly," She extended her hand and removed her mask, "My name's Virgilia Lucifer Lambdadelta."

My eyes were no more than large circles after she revealed her face. Very white, but not pale, she had hair slightly below her shoulders. With a hint of Italian in her otherwise flawless Korean-Japanese face, her eyes were colored red. Not like red, irritated eyes, like red, the colored part of your eye was bright red. "Uhh... Eyes?" I mumbled like an idiot while shaking her hand.

She batted an eyelash and said, "Yes, my eyes. They're red. I wasn't born like this, I actually had blue eyes when I was born. My family joked it was because my middle name is Lucifer, but we don't believe in that stuff." A waitress came by to our table, and asked Virgilia if she wanted anything. "Hmm... Wine for me, and get something legal for this boy." The waitress looked at me like I ruined her evening, then left for our order. "Well I seem to be doing all the talking, tell me about yourself. What's your name?"

I was still staring into those unnatural red eyes, but managed to say, "I'm Miguel Rikuma."

"I assume you're still underage?" I nodded just as the waitress came by, and delivered a bottle of red wine, a wineglass, and a can of Pepsi to our table. "Ah, Malachi brand, that one's new." She popped open the bottle and drank from the wineglass, consuming the bottle's contents. I took the soda, but dared not open it for fear of what the waitress did. I instead crammed it into a pocket, and stared at my alcoholic guard. "Wow, that's... a LOT of wine."

She had already gone through a quarter of the bottle, and when she finished her current glass she smiled at me, a trail of red wine seeping from her mouth. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Out of curiosity, I asked, "Do you have like, any diseases from doing that?"

She laughed at the statement, then explained. "Naaah, I have basically total immunization to ANYTHING. No joke. I once had a case of the flu one morning, and by the time lunch came around I was already jumping on my dad! Never had the flu since."

We talked for what seemed like 26 minutes, then the voice of the questioning man sounded across the building. "LAMBDADELTA! MEET ME AT ZED. BRING YOUR ASSIGNMENT!"

Virgilia Lucifer Lambdadelta sighed and checked her watch. "Wow, we've talked for over 5 hours. She stood from her seat, bringing the empty wine bottle, and put her mask back on, then helped me up, and walked me to 'Zed', where I found the rest of my group. She whispered, "Okay, remember what I said. The 4 rules. Got it?"

I whispered back the 4 I remembered, "1, don't talk loud. 2, don't look at anyone. 3, don't try and attack anyone. And 4, don't go anywhere without you."

"Bit out of order, but it'll do." Then she became the pushy guard I knew, 5 hours ago. For a mysterious meeting point, Zed was actually pretty nice looking. It was simply a stone bridge over flowing water, with lit candles running up and down its length. It had arches on the sides, which supported the roof of the bridge. There were to railings, so it was easy for someone to fall off if they misstepped.

※※※※※

The questioning man was checking each pair or group of us, looking for something in our eyes. So far, Jamie, Kwan and their Masculine guard had passed, as with the feminine guards of Marlou, Kaelynn, and Reina. Ryan was being checked, and the questioning man slapped his female guard in the face. She fell down to the floor, a large mark on her face. "PATHETIC! YOU FAIL!" he left the pair, then continued on to Jenny.

I was getting nervous, and Virgilia calmed by telling me what he was doing. "His name is unknown, so we call him Godfather. He's checking for an effect of a drug in the soda, it makes the drinker sleepy, and easier to control. I- we'll be fine if you drank the soda. You did... right.?" I looked at her guiltily, and she braced for the incoming hit. Godfather approached us.

"Well, Lambda. I assume you got your assignment... comfortable?"

"Yes Godfather."

"Good, now, to see if he is..." He lifted my eyelids, checking for something in them. After checking for a while, his face grew into an angered expression, and raised his hand for a strike upon Virgilia. "Lambdadelta... you... FAILURE!" He swung, and I did maybe the stupidest move in my life right then. I jumped between his hand and her face. I realized how high I jumped, as she was easily a foot taller than I was, and his hand hit my ribs. "Hm. Looks like your assignment saved you. Useless piece of trash..." He left us, leaving me on the ground, clutching at a rib.

Virgilia instantly got down the second Godfather was far enough, and began inspecting the damages. "You IDIOT! I didn't need you to do that!" She was looking at a blackened area on my ribs, as was everyone else. "Stupid, stupid kid... Well at least nothing was broken. Just don't be doing too much, or apply too much pressure to it."

I laughed a bit, then stopped at the pain in my ribs. I managed to mutter a sentence, "Heh, so you're a doctor too..."

She responded, "We all are, but me and Chuck here are the best. Right?"

Kwan and Jamie's guard responded, "Yep. Best doctors in the organization."

'Guy taking my name...' 'Heh, he was alive before us.' 'Well I still don't like it.' "Well, what do we do with them?"

Virgilia looked at him, as did everyone else, then asked, "What do you mean, 'what do we do with them'?"

Chuck stammered, "Uh-I- Uhh, well Godfather didn't tell us anything on what to do with them! He just told us to, well do what we were supposed to!"

Both were quiet, then Marlou's guard stepped up. "How about we take them to our living areas? Virgilia? I'm sure you would be okay with that," The guards looked at each other as if sending messages telepathically, then they all nodded in unison. "Then that does it! We will take our assignments to our living areas. But we can't call them assignments always can we? Someone give me a name for them!"

Marlou's guard said, "We can call them Furniture!"

Kaelynn's was worse. "Let's just use a number!"

Ryan and jenny's guard was more sympathetic, "Just call them people..."

Then Virgilia said, "Friends." Everyone, not just the guards, looked at her."I mean, we've all spent an excess of 5 hours talking to them, and now we're taking them to where we live. I think they earned that, haven't they?" I looked at her masked face, wondering what her red eyes were like now, if they were still scary-looking, or slightly more comforting. "Well quit staring at me, take your friends to your living area!" Then we were all separated, and led to different rooms, once more.

※※※※※

"Ahh, finally. Well, here's my humble abode." Lucifer unlocked a small dark door, and entered. She showed me her room, which was surprisingly more clean than the rest of the building was, and actually larger the door makes you think, but still small. There were 2 beds, one black, one white, on opposite sides of the room. Each had a nightstand, again, one black, and one white. Lucifer walked over to the nearer black one, and sprawled herself on it. She stretched as she began to relax herself, then picked up a book from the black nightstand. The cover read 'Blood Usage' and had a picture of a man being stabbed in the throat with blood spilling. I shook my head then went to a clean corner, and set down to go to sleep. "OH ****, I am sorry. Uh... here just sleep on my bed!" I looked at her with a slightly disturbed look and she laughed and said, "Oh, I see what you're thinking. Well you can't take the other bed, someone else sleeps there. Actually why he's not back worries me... But anyways, I'm a lot older than you are, so I don't think sleeping with me is disturbing." She put her book down and tilted her head, "Come on, Virgilia wont bite." I sighed to myself and got up, slowly making my way to her bed. I lay down, already uncomfortable, and was complicated by my stomach rumbling. "Hungry?" I nodded, and she jumped up and went to a very small door. She opened it to reveal the contents of a small fridge, and brought out a sandwich. "Here you go!" She handed it over to me, and I didn't care if it was cold, or that she was watching, or the other presence in the room was watching, I scarfed it down in less than a minute.

A feminine voice from the white side of the room said, "He eats fast." I looked at her, and saw a very disturbing sight. "I assume you've told him what we do here Virgilia? If not... how pitiful."

With a look of despair in those red eyes, Virgilia said, "Well, here's the other resident in this room." He motioned to the being, which was incredibly similar to… "Miguel, go back to bed, I'm gonna talk with this person. Try not to kill yourself."

I grabbed by rail gun as both females left the room, and I said one word to myself. "Katie…?"


	9. Once Dead, Partially Reborn

Kaay. The ever so tired writer has managed to force out Chapter 9. I swear im becoming addicted to writing this TT^TT I dont know if this counts as doing something with my life, coz when i compare what i do with some of my friends, im pretty pathetic xD well now that im done writing that little self-pity moment, go ahead and read. Reviews make me happy. Just sayin. Now leave me to find something more productive!

Virgilia: What're you wriiiiiiting?

Me: Nothing hime! Nothing...

Reina: Nothing is a lie.

All the guys: ...

※※※※※

.=*HOTD Outbreak In America*=.

.=*Chapter 9*=.

.=*Once Dead, Partially Reborn*=.

"Virgilia, you haven't told him yet?" What I thought was Katie frowned at the still taller Virgilia, and continued. "I can tell you one thing, he's a nosy bastard, so you might as well tell him soon."

The taller female looked away, off into the still busy city-thing we were all in. "Well, he looks like he could live without the information. Like he knows too much already."

Katie then said something shocking to both me and Chuck. The one in my head, not the guard. "Heeeeeeeeeeh, you're no fun! Well listen to that voice thing in your head! What's she say about it?"

My jaw literally dropped when I heard that. As did Chuck's. 'Kid, you heard that too?' I just nodded, unable to speak at the new revelation. Virgilia began to speak again, "Well, Maria said to have him sleep in the same bed as me..."

Katie began laughing maniacally after hearing that. "HAHHAHAHAHAHAHA, SHE TOLD YOU TO LET HIM SLEEP WITH YOU! HOW PATHETIC CAN YOU BE?" Virgilia merely stood there, long black hair flowing in the wind. Katie kept laughing for another 3 minutes, and then died down enough to speak again. "Ohhhh Virgilia Lucifer Lambdadelta, I don't know why Godfather even brought you here. You've been with us for 2 years, and you STILL can't get anything done! Your assignment didn't even drink a damned soda!"

While Katie was laughing, my friend was still just standing, looked humiliated, and angry. "Aho..."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"

"Aho... Anata wa watashi no jōken mo no kanzen'na shitte iru..."

Katie frowned and furrowed her eyebrows, and said, "Well you know I can't understand Foreignese! Ugh, useless... get out of my sight!" She left Virgilia alone, and went off to the crowd of people in the distance.

I quickly ran back to her bed, taking up as little space as possible, pretending to be asleep. By the time my guard-turned-victim had come back, I was half-asleep, but not quite enough to not notice Virgilia re-enter the room. I shifted in my position to get a better look at her, and noticed she was at a drawer, previously unnoticed. She opened it and reached in for something, and brought out a comfortable-looking pair of clothes. Realizing she was going to change, I closed my eyes, and let myself sleep. When she lay down beside me, she whispered, "If only you knew of, and understood, my burden..."

※※※※※

I loud blaring alarm woke me up, and I instinctively jumped for my rail gun, stumbled into a good firing position, and aimed at god-knows-what. Everything was so dark; I could barely make out the shape of anything. 'Kid, careful. Something else is in here.' I nodded to myself, and slowly walked to the wall. I reached one arm out to find the wall, instead my hand found a soft round thing. Then the soft round thing moved, and squealed loudly. "WHAT THE HELL!"

I turned to the sound of Virgilia's voice, and only realized what I did when she turned on a flashlight. She had her arms positioned over her breasts, and I felt myself flush red. "Oh my god... I'm so sorry!" On the inside, Chuck was laughing his *** off. 'WOOOWWW KID, YOU GROPE SOME 23 YEAR OLD LADY, AND YOU REGRET IT?'

I looked down, unable to look at her face, which I was sure was as red as her eyes were. "You little pervert... Whatever, get up, I gotta get you out and fighting." THEN I looked up at her, finding her in the same black suit as when we met. "Come on! We gotta go!" She forcefully pulled me with her, outside, and I caught a glimpse of humans fist-fighting a horde of zombies. She then led me up a few flights of stairs, into a tower-like structure, then threw me with the other 7 members of my group. "There, wait, right there. Miguel, STAY. I'll get a helicopter up here, and you guys can fight from there." She then surveyed the number of us. "Ehh, maybe 2."

She left me on the floor, with the rest of my group looking around at where their guards were. Ryan asked, "So what do we do since they're all gone?"

Reina, still the leader, said "well, how about we find out why our guards were in such a hurry to get us out."

Jamie and Kwan looked at each other, then Jamie asked all of us, "Didn't your guys' guard tell you what this place does?" We all shook our heads, and Jami explained. "According to our guard, this place is actually pretty old. IT was created to bring back the dead. He didn't tell us how, but they could take dead corpses and reanimate them, but whenever they brought it back from the dead, it wouldn't have the same personality as its human form. It also was crazy strong, like the zombies."

I thought back to seeing Katie, and everything Jamie said made sense. She definitely wasn't the same shy girl from school, but now she was like some evil dictator. She still thinks I'm **** though. Still don't know why. I remembered how... obsessed Ryan was, so I decided not to tell anyone about it. Rather just have them see for themselves. Just then, 2 helicopters, containing each of our guards flew overhead, and Virgilia told us to find out guard and join them. She was standing near the edge, wearing her mask, and holding a very long rifle. I climbed aboard one helicopter, and Reina, Jaime and Kwan followed. We took the same positions as our first helicopter ride, except Reina was at a mounted turret. "Well, back to the past."

I shouldered my rail gun, and squeezed the trigger. Into the ground forces consisting of thousand of zombies. "Damn there's a lot..."

Virgilia shot the gun with a deafening crack, then another, and another, each shot killing one zombie. She said, "Yea, this is one of the largest attacks we've had." we both noticed various of the specialized 'Strains' amongst the battlefield, and upon seeing a Spawner Strain, shot 3 precise bullets into it. I burned another Strain that was shooting acid everywhere, and she said, "Wow. Nice gun."

I said, "Thanks, now how do we actually win this?"

She kept shooting as if she didn't hear my question, when one of the other guards answered. "Like we win every attack, we use OUR Zombies." He pointed down, and I saw zombies fighting humans, who seemed to be on par with the reanimated corpses. "They're every bit as powerful as the actual dead ones, and they can think."

Reina was going trigger happy with the mounted turret, then asked, "Does it matter if we shoot them?"

"Not really. We can always bring them back. Kinda."

I was about to ask what he meant, when I looked down at the various soldiers pouring from the city's doors. I took in how magnificent the place was, considering the situation we were in. It was more of a castle then a city, but it was HUGE. I understood then how so many beings could survive. Meanwhile on the ground...

※※※※※

"Fire Brigadiers! Open fire!" A wall of flame bursted from the front most soldiers, followed by a rail of led by the Marines behind them. Tanks were being deployed at key areas, to stave off zombie entrance into the city. Meanwhile, jeeps piloted by two men each were buzzing around the zombie army, throwing grenades left and right,

In a mechanical walker, much like the ones at the USO base was the Godfather. "Men! Hold your ground! Let them come to us!" He unleashed a flurry of bullets, and was followed by the ground Marines joining him. The flamethrower troops were burning anything that got close, while the dead-come-back-to-life humans were tearing the zombies to shreds. Little by little the zombie army was decimated, with only the remaining Strains retreating.

The Godfather broadcasted a message to everyone, easily understandable from our position. "MEN AND WOMEN OF THE DGC, WE LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY!"

The ground erupted in cheers, again, hearable from our spots in the helicopters. Our pilot spoke to the other helicopter, and both began their slow descent to the ground. Jamie and Kwan were again next to each other, and Reina eased her way to me and Virgilia. "So is this how every attack is?"

Virgilia laughed and said, "No, not all of them." The helicopter coasted to a stop, and we poured out of the aircraft one by one. "Now, Reina was it? Would you like to stay with me and Miguel?"

Reina asked her, "Why?"

My guard motioned to Reina's guard, who was drinking himself to extremes. "He won't be safe to be around once he comes back. So do you want to stay?"

Reina nodded, and I softly and sarcastically said, "Yeeaayy."

※※※※※

We went back to our places, and made ourselves comfortable. I said, "Wow, what time is it?"

Virgilia was at her drawer again, and brought out the same clothing I saw her take before. "Uhh it's... 4:00am. Waaaay past your bedtime buddy." She and Reina chuckled at that, and I assumed they were talking on the Female Telepathic system. I dismissed it, and tried going to sleep. I was too tired to care where I was, so I just plopped myself on the floor, put the gun next to me, and slept. "Haha, boys and their sleeping. He'll be sore when he wakes up..."

Reina sat on the white bed, and said, "So, what's your name?"

The taller of the two females in the room said, "Virgilia Lucifer Lambdadelta. Yours?"

Reina said, "Reina. Nice to meet you." She was on the white bed, picking at a hangnail. "So, you live here with someone?"

Virgilia was now changed into much more comfortable clothing, and sprawled on her bed replied, "Used to. He used to actually LIVE here until he got engaged... so I've been pretty alone for a while." She sighed and closed her eyes, then said, "Can I ask you a question?"

My friend Reina quit looking at her nail and replied in a cheery tone, "Sure! Tell me anything! What is it?"

"Well, let's pretend I have a voice inside my head. If, say, the Godfather were to find out, do you think he'd let me live? Or would he torment me?" The girl with the red eyes sat up. "Because there is a voice in my head.

After a moment's silence, Reina moved to Virgilia's side and said, "Don't worry. You're not the only one." Virgilia looked at Reina with hopeful eyes, but lost that hope when Reina said, "It's not me." Her red eyes became soft again, no longer glowing with the same happy brightness. "But he's in the same room." Reina got up from Ms. Lambdadelta's bed and moved over to the white bed, and went to sleep right as she hit the mattress.

"He's in the same room..." The tallest presence in the room looked at the only male presence, and fell asleep.

※※※※※

I was interrupted from my sleep by the Godfather appearing in our room. "WAKE UP! LAMBDADELTA! REINA! MIGUEL!" The three of us woke up, me and Reina taking our time. Virgilia was already standing and ready for whatever command was to be given. "Quick as usual Lambda, now if only these two would get up faster.

Reina and I were still at the 'rub off the sleep in your eyes' stage. Virgilia said, "Sir they're still only children."

The Godfather raised a palm and hit her in the face. "HOW DARE YOU TALK BACK TO ME? YOU ARE LUCKY I NEED YOU FOR THIS, OR YOUD BE DEAD TODAY." He looked at us."Well hurry up if you don't want to be dragged!" Me and Reina sped up slightly, and once we finished, the Godfather instructed us to follow. He led us around the castle/city's infrastructure, to a large, heavy metal door. "You two will wait here for now. Your guard will stay with you."

He left us facing the door, and Reina asked, "So... what's behind the door Virgilia?"

She responded, "I don't remember, last time I remember being here was cleaning up the dead bodies." Reina and I looked at each other, and kept a tighter hold on our weapons. "Do you guys always carry your weapons with you?"

I nodded, "Yep. We never know when we'll need them. And I'm too paranoid to leave this thing alone." I tapped my rail gun to emphasize what it was. Over the course of 15 minutes, our whole gang and 5 of the 6 guards were here. We were talking among our kind, kids to kids, guards to guards.

Then godfather's voice proclaimed that we would be tested for usage. "Children! You will be tested, to see what role you will play in this society. If you should fail, we will bring you back as a half alive soldier. Understood?"

"What is the test?"

Godfather smiled, not a warm inviting smile, and said, "You'll see." Our guards ushered us into a moderately sized, yet simple room, with a chair for each of us, and 2 decks of cards. The entire room was white, with the chairs and table excepted. The floor was hard, cold, and the room echoed slightly. From a hidden speaker came godfather's voice. "Your test is to survive each other for 2 weeks!" Loud cackling came from the speaker, then before the speaker sopped broadcasting we heard, "Now let's go get those Implants for you guards..."

※※※※※

Our first day was simple enough, we just played around our box of a jail, with one break for our meal. The second day was the same, but with less enthusiasm. Third day we played a game of cards, which lacked 6 kings and all the 9's. On the fourth day we did nothing, me and Marlou made a house of cards. The 5th day we had used the cards as targets, then slept once they were all gone. The sixth day almost broke us.

Kaelynn shouted at Marlou for staring at her for so long, and then he retaliated saying it was her fault for being so attractive. Jamie had ignored Kwan the whole day, and was talking with jenny about her hair. Ryan and Kwan were sulking about their lost companions, while me and Reina had an uneasy air between us. I sighed once, and Reina hit me in the gut. "Shut up..."

"I didn-"

She punched me again. "I said, shut. Up." I held my stomach and nodded, only to be punched again. "DAMNIT I SAID STOP!"

All eyes turned on us, and I left Reina's side until the 7th day.

※※※※※

"They are resilient children aren't they? 7 days and only 1 low point." The godfather coughed into his sleeve, and continued on. "Maybe we need to send them over the edge..."

Virgilia, now with ocular Implants that replaced her mask functions (Infrared, X-ray, zoom-in function, etc), said, "What do you have in mind Godfather?"

"Heh... I'm putting Katie into their mix. 2 days with that arrogant ***** will break anyone!" The Godfather laughed, then coughed into his sleeve again. "Ugh, I'm getting old." He spoke to 2 of the guards, "Get Katie into their room, time to break them."

The guards left, and Virgilia said, "Are you sure it's a good idea? I mean, they used to know her, and when they realize that she's not the same as before..."

※※※※※

The door to our essential prison cell opened, and in walked an exact replica of Katie, who we had thought died much earlier. "I'm back kiddies, Godfather said we're stuck here for 2 more days, so get used to your new buddy. AHAHAHHAHAH!" We all stared astonished at our once dead comrade.

Ryan, the original lover of Katie, said, "Bu- yo- yo- you died!"

Katie cackled and said, "I did! But these guys found me, did some **** to me, and now I'm back! AHAHAHA!"

Ryan's jaw opened, then asked again, "But... you don't ACT like Katie! And she wasn't as shapely as you!" Everyone looked at Ryan, "What? I checked out Katie a coupl of times..."

Then at 'Katie', who laughed explicitly and posed, showing off her body as much as possible. "HA! So you noticed? I had the eggheads who brought me back to life change some things, you like?"

Ryan said, "I don't know if I do or if this is bull****, but you're not the Katie we knew!"

Katie frowned in disgust and stood straight, and sat down in a chair. "Hmph, two days, I can last that long."

※※※※※

The 8th day, no one would speak a word to each other, avoiding as much contact as possible. Katie sat, slept, ate, and did everything in the same chair, while the rest of us occupied the floors of the room. Katie groaned and said, "This is so BORING! What do you guys DO here? UGHHHHHH."

We were all in a tired mood, even though we had done nothing. None of us replied, but Ryan mumbled, "To think I liked her..."

Katie suddenly stood from her chair, knocking down the furniture in the process. She opened her mouth to scream at Ryan, but it instead froze, and coalesced into a demonic smile. "I'm sure you'd LOOOOOVE to meet my husband... Hehehe..." She got the desired reaction from Ryan, which was a mouth wide open and a stupefied look on his face. Cackling emerged from what once our friend, "You should see the look on your face! Ha! So, so stupid." She laughed some more, and I decided to take a nap. 'Good call. At least SHES not here.' On the 9th and final day of our 'test', Godfather came through the door. He said, "Children! You have, unfortunately, passed the test. Now we can put you to use somewhere! Your guards will bring you all to the cantina, then they will assign you to a job of some sort. Now begone! Katie, come with me." We all did as was told, and at the cantina, Kwan and Jamie's guard was messing with Virgilia.

"Come on, why not?" Their guard was trying to hold Virgilia's hand, but she kept pulling them away. Without his mask the other guard looked much like Virgilia, but much less smooth, and more battle hardened features.

She slapped his hands away, and a look of terror crossed her face. "Edgar, no, please, no! Onee-san!"

Virgilia's elder brother, Edgar, rose from the table, and grabbed Virgilia by her hair. "You listen to me, I don't give a **** if you're my sister, I will hit you if I need to put some disciple in. got it?" He twisted her hair, nearly pulling it out, and she screamed in pain. "I SAID GOT IT?" he slapped her in the face. Tears dropping from her eyes, she nodded, and he dropped her to the floor. "That's right, cry on the floor. Useless sister..." He left the cantina, leaving me, my group, 3 guards, and Virgilia.

I looked around at the others in the building, but no one seemed to acknowledge what just happened. I quickly ran to her side, and tried to help her up. She wouldn't move by herself, so I gave up trying to get her up. Instead I moved her black hair away from her face, and said, "I know it's a dumb question, but are you okay?"

She wiped her tears, and sat up, a temporary break in her cries. "Yea, I'm okay. Just, well... I'll explain when we're in the room."

I nodded, and stood up, helping her rise to her feet. "Is that guy your brother?"

With painful red eyes, she looked at me directly, and said, "The worst there ever was." She clenched her hand in an incredibly tight fist, then said, "Why did I have to be born as his sister?"

Her tears came back, and I quickly tried to comfort her. "Uh erm... well... You know what, let's go back to your room. I think it'll be better to get away from the mass of people."

In my mind, Chuck said, 'Wow, that was actually pretty smooth for you kid.' 'Oh be quiet.' Walking amongst the darkening corridors, halls, bridges and plazas of the city, I decided to actually observe my surroundings. From exiting the cantina, it was a wide, nature-decorated area. Devoid of much technology, there were sakura trees growing on rosemary bushes. Green grass grew in neatly, broken by clean cobblestone pathways. Leaving that place, there was a choice of entering the business part of the city, or the suburban area. We took the suburban route, and it was basically the same as the plaza outside the cantina, but with houses riddled around. With all of the observing, I also had to take a look or two at my guard. My black-haired comrade was much taller than I previously assumed, slightly taller than Kaelynn, who was half a foot taller than I. Her skin-tight suit left no qualms about her figure, nicely developed and slim. Before I knew it, we were at the small door again. She opened the door and went in first, then had me wait outside for a while. "Could you wait? Sorry, I need to change." She closed the door, and had me wait at the wall. 5 minutes passed when she reopened the door and said, "Okay, I'm done."

I made my way inside, and took note of the new outfit Virgilia wore. Rouge-colored, it was similar to an anime-schoolgirl uniform, and at the back 2 tail-like extensions of the skirt protruded. She saw me looking, and asked, "What?"

I ripped my gaze away and said, "Ehh, nothing. Just, you look nice."

"Awh, well thanks. Actually, that reminds me. Let's get you some new clothes. Ne?" I wondered what kind of clothes, and where she would get them. Probably sensing the question, she said, "Don't worry, you won't get my clothes. Tomorrow though, that surgery made me tired." With a cute smile she moved to the bed, and I went to the other. With nothing else to do, I curled up in the sheets, and tried to sleep. "You sleep too much."

I looked at Virgilia, who was running at me, probably ready to jump. "SHIIIIIIIIIITTAKE."

This is probably something good to know, but ima try and start writing the OTHER stories that are in my head. So if i end up not posting for a month on this, remind me. Ill belt out a chapter for you guys :D


	10. Simple Words

CHAPTER TEN! WAAHOOOO! :D Okay. Now that thats done, here are somehting that may be good to know. 1) The only reason i write this story is because i have too much free time. So once i get freetimeless, this story will be updated slower. 2) NExt week for me is CST Testing, so there will be NO chapter 11 till next next week. 3) Im getting a new story in my head, so if this goes to dust, TOO BAD. Maybe i'll revisit it. Aaaand 4) to those of you who actually know me in person, I imply NOTHING. With these pairings. Okay? SO QUIT GETTING ON MY BACK WITH THE PAIRINGS. THERES 2 PAIRINGS THAT ARE TRUE. SO SHUT. K, now go ahead and read.

※

HOTD Outbreak In America

Chapter 10

シンプルな言葉

Shinpuruna kotoba

I woke up next to the tall, raven haired, female guardian of mine. Her arms were around me like a mother would a child, so I eased out of her hold and tried to find the bathroom. On the other bed, the black bed, Reina was fast asleep, blankets covering her small physique. I went to the door of the room, walked outside, and smelled the early morning winds. The sun was still rising, so the land was still somewhat dim. I ran back inside to grab my rail gun, then back outside. I decided to take a walk around, and a rail gun would be nice to have around. 'Didn't she say not to go anywhere without her?' "Well unless Katie, Godfather, Edgar, or someone else unfriendly crosses our path, I think we're fine."

Walking the same path I took coming to the room, I found my way to the Bridge, where I took the unnecessary hit for Virgilia. 'Heh, now that was humor to me.' I remembered how my flesh was darkened after the hit, and wondered how the guards could stand such punishment. I sat down, letting my legs hang over the edge, rail gun in one hand. "I never thought I'd be this comfortable in this kind of world." 'Whatcha mean kid?' "I mean, think about it. Before we found this base, we were running from zombies, fighting Strains, losing our friends. When we found the USO, I thought we'd be happy there. Then when it fell, I thought we'd never find some peace. Now we're here, in the DGC castle. Complete with Cantina, living suburbs, and the stereotypical 'working city'. I don't remember where, but I read that 'Once a society has civilians, that society is off to a good start.'." I looked up at the slightly higher sun, wondering if Malina would come back. The thought was erased by chuck's warning. 'Yo kid, some peeps over to the right are lookin' at ya. There's 4 of 'em, all tall and gangly. Keep your guard up.' I glanced to my right, seeing the men. I got up urgently, and started walking quickly to my room. 'They're gettin closer kid!'

"Hey you!" Said a gruff voice from behind me. I started running, but my lazy lifestyle was no match for them. They quickly caught up to me, surrounding in the classic kid-gets-jumped scene. "Hey bro, don't get scared. We aint here to hurt ya, just wanna know some stuff. We give you something back once we done, aight?"

Heart racing, I nodded furiously, then another, deeper voice said, "Alright then, you know a thing or two 'bout something called the USO?" I nodded. The group looked at each other, then the man said, "Follow." Seeing no other choice, I followed them into the urban part of the place, between walls and into a back alley. "Alright, spill everything you got about them USO."

I started, "Well... as far as I know, they're some organized group that finds survivors, a-and they have some advanced tech. Recent guns, fighter jets, tanks, a whole bunch of mechs like Godfather has. That kind of tech."

The men looked at each other again. A Jamaican accented-man said, "Really now? I say we be hearin' dem USO boys got some kinda laser ship ting, know anyting 'bout dat bruddah?"

I thought for a moment, then said, "Yes. The one I was a-"

The Jamaican interrupted me. "Whoooooa man, you actually BEEN in da base! Do they got a man by de name of Gabriel?"

The deep voiced man said, "Let him finish. Let him finish."

"Fine, fine..."

I continued on, "Anyways, the one I was at had some huuuge ship, shot lasers and stuff. I don't know what happened to it after the base was attacked, but it was seriously powerful."

The fourth man who had not spoken at all finally asked, "So... you said the ONE you were at?" His voice was very drawn out, like a snake is imagined to speak.

"Mhm, the leader of that base said that it was an auxiliary base."

"I see... well I believe that was all we needed, so be on your way now."

The Jamaican man said, "Now wait, we said we gonna give him somting back, now we give somting back!"

The first man who spoke said, "Yea man, I told the kid I was gon' give him somethin'."

I asked, "If you guys know anything, do you know how they bring the dead back?"

They all stopped talking and looked at me. The last man asked, "What makes you think we know anything?"

"Uhm... I don't know, you guys seemed like you would know something."

Deep voiced man said, "Well we do know something. Jimmy here experienced it." He motioned to the snake-talking man. "Yep. He's died already."

I stared at Jimmy, who sighed and began explaining. "Well I guess there's no escaping this, but be warned, it might be a bit hard to listen through the whole thing." I nodded, understanding what was coming. "Alright, now don't ask me how I know; I know I was dead when they did it. Anyways, they literally take your brain out. After that, they put a small computer chip thing in your head, which I guess is the replacement brain. Then, they do some **** to your body, fixing it up, adding some metal where it needs to be. Tiny hydraulic pressure thingies are put in your arms, which is why we can fistfight the real dead zombies."

The Jamaican said, "Pain in the ass to wrestle with though..."

Jimmy glared at him then said, "THEN, they replace your skin with some 'self-regenerating tissue' or something. I call fix-it-skin. So when we get all cut up, we fix ourselves. They do some medical mumbo-jumbo, so we can feel things, and then they wake us up. You may be the same body as before, but you're never the same person. Like Kat-"

The deep voiced man covered jimmy's mouth, then said, "That's all you need to know. I'll lead you out of here soon."

I stepped toward Jimmy, "Wait! What were you saying about Katie?"

The Jamaican grabbed my arms, "Sorry bruddah, dass classified. Come on, I don't wanna have to knock you out!" I was struggling against his grip, then felt a blunt pain hit my head. Complete blackness.

※

'Daaaamn kid, you got hit pretty hard.' I woke up at the bridge where I was found, no one passing even bothered looking down. I felt my head where I was hit, finding a large swell and some dried blood. "Ouch." I tried getting up, barely able to keep balance, when I felt a familiar form death-hug me from behind. "Haha! I TOLD you Maria-sama!" I turned around to find Virgilia and Reina, in different clothing from the previous day.

Reina was clad in a light blue tank top, underneath a white polo shirt. She wore a pair of black jeans, and a very pretty bow in her hair. "What are you looking at Bon Qui Qui?"

From the death grip of Virgilia, I said, "Ehh nothing, just... Nice bow in your hair though. Fits your image."

"Oh thank you～"

"Now do you mind getting me out of this slightly PAINFUL hug?"

Virgilia suddenly let go and said, "Sorry! Maria-sama told me you would be back at the room by the time we came back, but I said you wouldn't, and I won!"

I looked at her curiously. "Uhh, Maria-sama?"

"Oh... Uhh... how to explain..."

She wrung her hands thinking of how to explain, when Reina very bluntly said, "She's got a voice in her head named Maria, like the Chuck in your head."

We both looked stunned, then asked of each other the same question, "You have a voice in your head?"

'Kid! In my defense, I am a different conscience.'

*Virgilia-Chan, I HAVE A MIND OF MY OWN!*

'Waidda minute, kid you hearin some other voice?'

*Virgilia I think there is another voice in your mind...*

Virgilia asked, "Miguel?"

"Huh?"

"Are you hearing a second voice in your head?"

Reina said, "Ooooooh this is good. A girl and a guy, both with a voice in their heads, DESTI- I'm getting carried away aren't I?" we both nodded, and she said, "Sorry, I'll leave you two to, well, whatever you were doing."

I shrugged and replied, "Ehh, well we're kinda just listening to Chuck and Maria get to know each other."

"They sound so CUTE together!" Virgilia squealed.

'*HEY!*' The two voices were talking to each other in frantic tones, yet obviously they were both happy talk/thinking to each other. "We have no physical form, I don't think we could be classified as 'cute'." 'I second that!'

The three of us, Me, Reina, and Virgilia, laughed at the voices, then Virgilia said, "Well, while these two are talking, let's get YOU some new clothes. I already got Reina hers, as you can see."

Reina pushed Virgilia lightly and said, "Well you got new clothes too! Casual too." It was true, she wore a tight t-shirt, colored completely black, and a pair of skinny jeans. 'You mean those things that off blood flow.' 'Yeep.'

"Well we won't get anywhere standing here, let's go!"

She ran off with Reina, leaving me to chase them down. "Well as long as I'm not picking... I've horrible fashion sense."

※

"Miguel?" Reina asked.

"Yeeesh?"

"Have you ever gone clothes shopping before?"

I hung my head, and the very simple clothing in my only shopping bag, and said, "No..."

She abruptly exclaimed, "NO WONDER!" I stepped back from the suddenness of her voice. "You don't know what to pick, I mean, black pants and black shirt? VARIETY BUDDY. VUH. RYE. EH. TEE."

Ashamed, yet apathetic, I said, "Well why don't you pick some stuff then!" She contorted her face into a coy smile, and I began to regret it. "This could be bad." Virgilia was off somewhere in the store, so when Reina ran off, I was left alone in the crowd. "Damn. Well, nothing else to do but explore." I put my gun, which goes around with minimal stares, in a comfortable position, and went walking around. I browsed the aisles, looking for something to intrigue me. "Food, cords, tape, jewelry, ooh that one would like nice on Kaelynn," 'Kid.' "Sorry, sorry..." I continued my way, and finally found something that was interesting. "Oh lookie, books, videogames, sciencey gadgets, this looks fun." I browsed the contents of the bookshelves, and the varying books. "Let's see... what do we have here... Dead Come Rising, World of the Dead, Deathly Horrors... geez. depressing book choices." 'Kid, the only thing this place has probably seen is dead, fighting, blood and the like. I don't think they got much inspiration for something happy.' "Well, nothing else to read here." I took Dead Come Rising, and opened the book. Inside was a graphic description of a woman being torn apart by the massive strength of zombies. Another depicted an underage girl of 14 being brutally raped by deranged survivors. There was no hero, just experiences and stories of sights seen by others. I was getting sleepy by the time I read of a survivor drinking himself silly. Before I found out what happened, I was asleep.

※

"You see? I told you he'd be here."

"Hey, you said VIDEOGAMES, not books."

"Well he's near them isn't he?"

"..."

"That's what I thought. Now wake him up!"

I awoke to Virgilia shaking me, trying to wake me up. Drowsy, I cracked open an eye and mumbled, "Bwabflle?"

Reina, carrying 3 shopping bags, said, "Alright he's up, now let's go."

Virgilia and Reina began walking, and I shook off my sleepiness to chase them. "Ey wait up!"

Reina looked back and teased, "Then walk faster sleepy butt! By the way, you drool."

"WHAT?" I began chasing her around the store, winding up at the exit. Breathing heavily, I breathed out, "Geez, even with 3 bags in your arms, I STILL can't catch you."

Virgilia came around to find us, then Reina inquired, "We walkin home?" Virgilia nodded, then threw me 1 of 3 bags she was carrying. "You carry your clothes." and then we set off outside, into the unnaturally windy outside. "DAMN THIS IS HEAVY WIND!"

Shouting over the weather, I screamed, "Come on! let's get back to the room!"

Reina was being buffeted back by the heavy winds, her size wasn't helping at this point. whenever a gust of wind blew at us, she was blown a foot and a half in that direction. I reached for her shoulders and brought her close, so I could keep her from being tossed so violently. 'Uh-huh, you just want an excuse to be really, REALLY close her eh?' *In my opinion they look very nice together, don't they Chuck?* 'Mhm. Sure do Maria.' "Oh shut up chuck."

Once at the room, I was still holding on to Reina until the door closed. "Finally, no more wind." Virgilia relaxed on her bed, then motioned to me, "You can let go of Reina now."

I instantaneously pulled my arms from her, blushed and said, "Gomenasai..."

Reina just laughed and said, "Ahh whatever. It wasn't... displeasing." She tilted her head and continued, "Yea. Not bad, didn't enjoy it, you get the point."

I sat on the black bed, ready to sleep, when a limp figure opened the door. The wind entered the room, disturbing everything it came into contact with. Virgilia screamed and screamed, "****!" She ran to the door and slammed it shut, but not before almost everything was moved. In addition to the mess, Edgar, Virgilia's brother, was lying on the floor, beer bottle in hand.

He moved on the floor a bit, then turned over and said, "Oh hi Imouto-chan." She groaned in disgust at the sight of her abusive brother, and ignored him completely. "Help your nee-san! Pleeease?"

"Why should I!"

"Because I'll punish you if you don't!"

"..."

"That's right, now get your butt over here, and help me."

watching the siblings fight, Reina and I were probably both thinking the same thing. she said, "Dude, shut the **** up. I don't think your OWN sister will help you if she knows you're gonna hit her."

The man on the floor slowly got up, and approached her. "Now listen here Shorty, get your short *** outta my business you got it? Now shut up before I hurt YOU too."

In an instant, we were both on our feet, weapons at the ready. I growled as Reina said, "If you even TRY and attack, I'll be sure to have your innards ripped out from your throat. After that, I think I'll slowly rip your 'appendages' off one by one. Then I'm sure Miguel will have you burned to ashes for threatening me and Virgilia. Now scram on your feet, or we'll remove you."

Edgar walked back slowly, then exited the door after flipping us off. Virgilia collapsed to the floor, tears dripping from her red eyes. Reina and I scrambled over to her, Reina hugged her tightly and I kneeled in front of her. "Shhh, it's okay, don't cry."

'B-b-but my brother, I-I-is, so...EVIL!" "Virgilia, remember that he is not your brother, he died once already." "I know... but it's hard for m-me to let go of the real him... the one before he came back..."

If we had more time, we would've stayed there until we fell asleep, but that time was cut short by a loud announcement over the loudspeakers. "ALL MEN GET READY FOR WAR! NEW CLASS OF ZOMBIE SIGHTED!" "Now I get to see how you fight chuck. Heh." 'Ohhhh lady, trust me, we can go killing. Hehehe...'

Reina, now at the door, said, "Come on Miguel, let's go fight some stuff. Give Virgilia some alone time."

I nodded, and went outside first. Into the wind, into the incoming danger, and into Kaelynn. "MIGUEL!"


	11. Reunition

Okay, i know i said that i wouldnt post another chapter because it was testing week, but i had a LOT of free time, so i decided to do soemthing. And this is the result. So, here's chapter 11, hope youg uys enjoy it as much as i enjoy writing it. I know that these author's notes are supposed to be a LOT longer, but i really have nothing to say. THeres not even an ending note D:

'Maybe thats because you're not meant to have them.' Oh shut up Chuck. WHICH REMINDS ME! text like this "Hi." Is verbal speech. 'Hi.' IS either a thought, or chuck. *Hi.* is maria (the voice in virgilia's head). Got it? Good.

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"Kaelynn? What're you doing here? Marlou too?" After walking right into Kaelynn, we went back inside to talk. "Ignore Virgilia for now, Reina and I got it."

"Okay... Well anyways, Godfather dude sent me and Marlou here to get you three. Or two, as it seems."

Reina said, "Well, what're we doing here? Let's go." We all stepped out into the wind, then ran to the front lines to join the quickly falling ground forces.

※※※※※

"Godfather! This is general Asmodeous, I need back up! Left flank, requesting tanks and melee, repeat, tanks and melee!" The general was carrying a basic rifle, but was clearing away more zombies than natural. Around him, his zombie troops fought hand to hand against a new kid of zombie. These kind were big, like 8 feet big. Two upper arms were large, muscular and powerful, and had 3 fingers. Underneath, two smaller limbs have 5 fingers, most likely used for delicate murder. The legs had 3 joints, similar to a dog's hind legs, ending in a dinner plate-sized, 4 toed foot. Hundreds of these 'Alien-Class' zombies fought in coordination with their weaker, more numerous cousins. The zombies on our side stood little chance against the Alien-classes, much less the swarms of regulars. Flamethrower troops were decimated as they got close, then exploded as the fuel tanks ruptured. The thing that evened out the playing field was the air force. Helicopters streamed overhead, untouchable I their positions in the sky. Rockets ripped holes in enemy groups, and bullets annihilated anything left alive.

Now in the chaos of the ground, our group of 8 took our classic fight positions. While Reina, Marlou, Kaelynn, Kwan, and Jamie destroyed the enemy up close and personal, Me, Ryan, and Jenny shot at them from a distance, giving cover fire to our allies. It must've been sad for the soldiers to see 8 children kill more zombies in 15 minutes than they did in 6 hours. Marlou and Kaelynn worked in perfect unison, attacking the same target, and killing with ultimate efficiency. Ryan and Jenny also fought well, each one compensating for the other. Kwan backed Jamie in whatever she killed, making sure nothing got too close. I provided cover fire, well plasma, for Reina as she jumped to and fro on the zombies. Then our first Alien-class. Marlou said in shock, "DANG we gotta kill THAT?"

Kaelynn sliced a zombie in two, then said, "Yep, come on, we can do this." She looked back at me, and I understood what she needed. 5 shots at the Alien-class did what was needed, which was knocking the thing down.

From there, it was a simple matter to kill it. Completely mutilate the limbs, then stab a 2 foot wide hole into the brain. Jamie and Reina stopped to admire their work, 1 alien class down in 3.5 minutes. "Nice work Jamie."

"You too, come on, they're fighting some more already."

True enough, the 5 already engaged another alien class, which was already toppling. Even with all of this firepower, the swarm was still too much. There were just too many to be killed. When 1 alien-class died, 7 regulars took its place. Our own army was growing desperate. To my right, Katie and Edgar were destroying things left and right. To the left, Godfather and General Asmodeous slaughtered over and over. The artillery, tanks, and copters did a fair amount of damage, but not enough to stop the incoming swarms. Ryan growled and said, "Damn, there's no hope for us now. We have to run, again."

Jenny told him, "Shut up! We won't lose this battle! I know I haven't been with you guys the whole journey, but I am NOT losing this place."

Ryan smiled, and resumed fighting with renewed vigor. I could only hope Reina was just as fine after all that fighting.

※※※※※

"BEHIND YOU!" Reina clawed off a zombie's head, then Kaelynn decapitated one behind her.

"Thanks, now tell me if I'm dreaming, but is that a SLOTH?"

"Trust me, you're not dreaming, it's a sloth." Oddly, a sloth was plodding along, undisturbed by anything. It looked around every once in a while, then resumed its slow walk. The creature disappeared behind a wall of dust, raised by our damnation on legs.

Infinitely taller than the alien-class, maybe 21 feet, this thing was covered by a tough carapace, decorated with strange patterns and a coat of shining slime. Like the smaller Alien-class, its massive legs had 3 joints, but ended in a larger, clawed foot. It had 2 humongous arms, with 4 claws arranged in an X pattern. What made it most unique was the skull. Upon a massive protective crest were 4 rows of blinding, blue lights. Assuming these were eyes, it had no blind spots. This plus our current problem would equal our death, anything short of a miracle wouldn't be enough. Regrouping, our 8 looked at the behemoth, and stayed close to our partners. Attempting to kindle a shred of hope, I tried to say something inspiring. "Well, we're dead."

"Thanks for the obvious."

"Well, I meant, Uhh... What I mean to say is that we're dead, but at least we're together." A pair of eyes looked up. " It's definitely not the preferred setting, but the people around us make up for it." 2 more eyes looked up. I felt the tears begin to well in my eyes, but kept on talking. "It's been fun with you guys. Really. Marlou, my best friend for so long. Ryan and Kwan, the dimwits who stood by me in my insane schemes. Jamie, one of the finest women I'll ever know. Jenny, I haven't known you long, but I wish I did, we could've been great friends. Kaelynn, always a step ahead of me, pulling me forward." I turned to face Reina, kneeled to eye level, and stroked her hair with a hand, "Reina. The one thin-person that kept me alive in this godforsaken world." I stood, rifle at shoulder, and recited a poem from Dead Come Rising. "On the first twilight, 4 shall die with missing faces. On the second, 2 lovers will die together. Third twilight, the remaining will sacrifice and mutilate, gouge the skull. Fourth twilight, one will kill themself, gouge the knee. Fifth twilight, 2 shall go insane, and stab the other's heart. 6th twilight, the rest shall fall, and the savior shall arrive." Somehow, this brought forth our remaining strength, and we got into fighting position.

"Bon Qui Qui, you ready?"

"I never am." And so we charged.

※※※※※

'3 O'CLOCK!' I twirled to my right, and burned the zombie reaching for my face. I blasted the ones behind it, followed by gunfire from Edgar and Katie.

Godfather and General Asmodeous worked in conjunction to take down any Alien-class that came near, while our group focused on the bulk of the swarm. The remaining helicopters released their payloads into the most heavily attacked areas, while the remaining ground forces stood their ground, and fought to the death. From the city, artillery shells rained above us, targeting whatever looked like a good idea. The Behemoth from earlier clearly wreaked the most havoc. It stepped on its own allies, moving with incredible speed. Out of one of its hands shot out a tentacle, which wrapped around a group of infantry. Those infantry were crushed in two, their bodies thrown into our army. The Behemoth turned its attention to us, and we braced for the incoming fight. General Asmodeous called to Godfather, "Sir! How do we take that thing down?"

The old man in a big robot replied, "I don't know! Ask them! They're the ones who killed the Spawner strain with dirt technology!"

He pointed at us, then the general asked, "Well? How are we gonna do this?"

Looking around, there really was only one way to survive, and that was to run. Sadly, any escape routes were blocked by endless zombies. Reina, still the leader, said, "We could try and flank it then try and kill it in a rush attack."

More military minded, Marlou spoke up. "That's suicide, that thing is too big to be taken down in one go. I suggest hit-and-run tactic."

Jamie said, "What about us? We have close range weapons, so does hit and run work?"

"I might have a solution. See those jeeps?" Godfather pointed out 2 fast, nimble vehicles with 2 turrets mounted. "Fast, ranged, and replaceable." He sighed as they were crushed by an alien class, then said, "Sadly the people aren't. Now come on, we can get you some if we hurry."

Our now group of 12 rushed back to the city, into the jeeps, and rushed back out. In 3 groups of 3 and one of 4, we set out to fight. Godfather, Katie, and Asmodeous were in one jeep. Kwan, Jamie and Ryan were in another. Jenny, Marlou and Kaelynn were in one, while Reina, me, Jenny, and Edgar were in the last. Now back on the playing field, we drove in circles around the Behemoth, pulling away when it struck. Sadly, the only times we had effect on the creature were when someone hit a sensitive spot, or my rail gun burned something. Reina, our driver, said, "MIGUEL IT'S NOT WORKING!"

"WELL WHADDYA WANT ME TO DO?"

Edgar screamed, "SHOOT SOME MORE!"

Reina agreed. "Yea! Listen to the ***hole!"

"Yea! Wait what?" Listening to the smarter of the two, I fired round after round after round into the thing's carapace, and slowly watched the crest burn. Releasing a blast into a blue light, thing, it scorched the light, leaving behind a black, charred remnant of what I believed was an eye. A loud bellow of pain erupted from the Behemoth, deafening whatever creature heard it. Edgar and Jenny clutched their ears in pain, I dropped my gun on the jeep floor and fell, and Reina lost control of the vehicle for 2, life threatening seconds. In those two seconds, a lifetime of chain reactions happened. Our vehicle hit a dip in the ground, causing our jeep to flip. This flip caused us to fly out of the vehicle, causing us injury. These injuries prevented one us from moving out of an alien-class' way, and the untimely near-death of a member caused the remaining of us to get stuck in shock.

When out jeep flipped over, throwing us all off, Reina was closest to the tilting point, and so flew the shortest distance. Edgar and I weighed more than Jenny did, so we didn't fly as far as she has. Jenny, being far from the tilting point and weighing very little, was thrown farther than she could be alive, almost directly into an alien-class. The Alien-class looked at her, 2 large arms ready to tear her to pieces. It lunged at her, just barely missing. If it had hit, she would've been squished beneath a massive foot. Luckily, the beast miscalculated, and missed Jenny. She got up and scrambled away from it, while everyone else kept applying pressure in the Behemoth. Then, our salvation came from the most unlikely of places. "USO! REJOIN THE BATTLE!" Looking up, I saw 8 of the familiar USO jets, streaking overhead. Cameron's pink, black, and white jet led them, followed by Sarah's plane. A cruiser, similar to the Vartolameo, moved overhead, massive laser batteries charged and ready to destroy everything. "FIRE!" For 10 minutes, laser, bullet, and missile bombardment continued. What nearly put our new found home into shambles was now no more than burning corpses, riddled with bullets. The Behemoth was a resilient one, able to withstand much longer than its allies. Its massive crest wasn't harmed by the bullets, and the laser batteries didn't seem to do much. Then the Cruiser's bow glowed bright red, seeming to gather energy. A HUGE line of god-knows-what erupted from the bow, scorching the Behemoth instantly.

Running to Reina, I hoped she was alive, despite the impact. Jenny was... definitely beyond help, and Edgar was never on my good side. Reaching her, she was conscious, breathing, but holding a gash on her upper arm closed. "Heh, ouch."

She got up slowly, and she leaned on me as not to fall. Making our slow walk to the base, Marlou's group of now 4 met with us. "Need a ride?" He was in the back, cradling, would you believe it, a sloth. "Yes Miguel, it's a sloth." shaking my head, I helped Reina aboard the vehicle, climbed on myself, and we drove back to the city.

※※※※※

Our group reaction was to find the leader of the USO, hoping that someone familiar was there. We found Cameron, tending to her jet with Sarah. Jordan was raging over the ancient design of out tanks and artillery, while Jonathan and Godfather were standing together, facing the dimming sun. "Jon... I never thought you would rise this far."

"Neither did I. I was assigned command of the Vartolameo, a while back. Only needed to use it twice." The younger of the two men sat down, legs crossed. "Godfather, still using stone-age technology."

Chuckling and coughing, Godfather said, "Well, I'm an old hand. And call me by my name."

"Yes sir."

"I'm waiting."

"Well you know I don't like calling my father by his first name."

"Say it."

"Fine... Amadeus." It was awkward for anyone to hear the Godfather's name, but when he looks at you, you just turn and leave. "So, father, what have you been doing here?"

Amadeus coughed and said, "Experimenting. Remember the USO's abandoned revival machine?"

"Yes, don't tell me you're using it."

"Too bad, I am. The basis of our survival are the soldiers that walk out of the reanimation building. Just as strong as any dead corpse, but they can think. And easy to keep in line."

[In the cantina...]

"BWAHAHAAHA!" Jenny and Jamie were laughing, exchanging stories from their point of view, ranging from my moonset night, to the 9-day insanity test. Kwan and Ryan joined them, laughing like a family. Me, Kaelynn, Marlou and Reina sat with Katie, who seemed to be in much better spirits. 'Or drunk...' "Hey Katie, you sure you can drink that much wine?"

She merely laughed at me and continued drinking. Reina said, "Betcha you wish your girlfriend was here～"

I replied, "Who me? Wait... WHAT girlfriend?"

We all laughed, then Reina continued, "Virgilia dummy! You two would look cute together..."

"EEEWWW! NO. Erm, well, I wouldn't MIND, but she's older than I am, like older enough to not be interested." As I said that, she entered the cantina, dressed in skinny jeans, and a white shirt. There was something different about her though, not bad nor good, but... different.

She found our table, and ordered a bottle of Malachi wine. "This stuff reminds me of when I met you, you know? That one day, I met the other person whose got a voice in their head."

I blushed slightly and slumped in my seat. Reina and Kaelynn laughed, understanding how awkward it was for me. As Kaelynn began to speak, the Godfather and his son, Jonathan Rompier entered. The entirety of the cantina became silent and looked at the pair. Then one man clapped. And so did everyone else. Celebratory music began playing, and the center area was cleared for a dance area. Kaelynn then said, "Well, let's party."

Jumping up, I laughed, "So long as I don't dance!" Then my serious face loomed. "Seriously."

If Reina noticed at all, she dismissed it and said, "BON QUI QUI, YOU'RE DANCING."

'Hehehe, smoooooooooth kid. Real smooth.' Then, we began the first dance. My first dance with a young female, the first I enjoyed. Her first real dance with a young male, her first she enjoyed. Marlou's voice nearly broke the moment. "FEAR MY SLOTH!"


	12. Kiss Kiss Fall In Love

DISCLAIMER: I owneth not the storyline of Highschool of the Dead, nor the songs within this chapter. I do own however 2 brand new books, of which will hidner my posting progress. IN laymann's terms, I own nothing, but i got two new books that ill be reading, SO i wont be writing and posting so often until im done. :D Anyways, heres the next chapter, i seriously loved the ending of this one. =w= ALSO! I may be starting that new stor yi said i would start earlier, BUT i require one thing: A genre to post it in xD Someone help me find a category where i can put a story about a Serial Killer falling in love with a Highschool Girl~ Now that thats all over, read the chapter, enjoy the fluff, and brace for the death of a character! Maybe!

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{HOTD Outbreak in America}

{Chapter 12}

~Kiss Kiss Fall In Love~

"See? Dancing isn't so hard." Reina and I just finished our 3rd, and hopefully final dance. Now Kaelynn, Marlou, Jenny, and Ryan were trying their hand, and feet, in the melodical movements. "all you need is some reason. Right?"

Setting down my glass of water, I said, "What reason made me dance then?"

The miniature woman rubbed her eyes, seeming tired from moving about so much. She looked at me directly and greeted my question with another. "How about this, why did you dance?"

"No fair I asked first!"

"LAWL, Well the only reason I can think of is kinda... embarrassing." Looking over, her pale face was contrasted with an obvious red blush forming on her cheeks. "Don't look!" She turned away and covered her face, making me wonder what emotion was on her face. 'You two are by FAR the slowest couple I've seen. then again, you're the ONLY couple I'm with 24/7. I need a life.' 'Well, you're in MY head. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!' *Chuck-sama, you know you can enter other people's minds, correct?* 'Oh really now...' 'BACK TO THE MATTER AT HAND!'

"Hey, just tell me what it is. I mean, it's not like... wow."

"What? If you're thinking its becauseyoulikeme, then..." She began to trail off until she just stopped, leaving behind an awkward silence in its wake.

"Wow. It's so much more awkward when you say it out loud. I mean, it was sort of obvious, but it's still weird actually hearing it."

Her eyes popped open in shock, or some other emotion, and screamed, "WHOA, WAIT. YOU MEAN YOU DO?"

"Never said that! Neeeeeever said that!"

"Oh, okay." As the song came to an end, a new, more peaceful tune took its place. The melody was familiar, as I was thinking of the name, Reina was thinking of what I said. "Miguel?"

"Oui?"

"What?"

"It means yes in French."

"Oh, well, just gonna ask straight forward here, but DO you like me? Ugh what am I saying? I know it's stupid, I mean what does it matter if you do, there's no school drama to ma-"

"Yes."

"Wh-what?"

"Oui. Yes. Hai. Si. I've admitted it in three languages. excluding english." We were both quiet for the rest of the party, occasionally looking at one another, then quickly looking away. We were alone at the table, everyone else was dancing or drinking herself silly. Virgilia was drinking.

Marlou's sloth was just relaxing on top of a table, picking through random garbage and scraps. When Kaelynn came by to pick up the sloth for who-knows-what reason, she saw the two of us awkwardly in the other's presence. Bringing the sloth, she sat with us, trying to relieve the tension. "Hey guys! Why aren't you two dancing?"

The sloth broke free of Kaelynn's hold, and was walking along the table. Reina picked it up, and held it like a sleeping child. "Because..."

Kaelynn droned on, "Because...?"

Quickly thinking of an answer, I said, "Because she's sleepy."

"Oh! Then, why don't you guys go back to your room and go to sleep?"

"Erm..."

In the female telepathic system, Reina told Kaelynn what happened with one look. "Ohhhh, I see. I'll just, leave you two..."

Picking up the sloth, she went back to Marlou, and began the odd dance of three. Reina put her head on the table, then groaned. "Really? I'm sleepy?"

Defensively I answered, "Well I had to think of something! Why do girls always get all quiet once they hear someone likes them..." The song had ended, and I realized now that there was no music. "I'll guess that's the end of it." it was true, the cantina was being cleaned up and everyone was slowly leaving. Standing up, I extended my hand to Reina to help her up. She brushed the hand aside and began walking at a brisk pace, hopefully back to our room. Sighing, I fixed my clothing, and followed her out, hands in pockets.

※※※※※

Upon my arrival to the room, I found Reina's excess clothing on the floor. She was on her bed, blanket completely covering her, already sleeping. not wanting to risk seeing her... indecent, I climbed onto my/Virgilia's bed and rested. 'Heh, women. hard to please.' *Oh shush.* 'You don't count!' "Tell me why I can hear Maria in my head?" *Oh Charles, you don't mind me using Charles do you?* 'Nahh.' *Charles, you haven't told him?* 'He was busy talkin!' *Well, I should explain myself then. Miguel, you can hear me because I am in your head.* I thought back, 'Since when could you enter people's minds? and why did I not notice?' *All of us can! Voices, like Charles and I, can move from consciousness to consciousness. When entering and leaving, the person should be able to feel a small, light singe on the base of their heads. The original host does change when we're gone however. Virgilia becomes very... messy, when I'm gone. But she's Virgilia, nontheless.* 'So you're saying, if Chuck leaves, I change a bit?' *Essentially, yes. Sadly, we won't know what happens until he leaves.* 'Really...' 'Oh boy. The kid's thinking of something.' "Well, I'm going to sleep now, so do try and keep your thoughts as quiet as possible."

With that, I tried to sleep, hoping that in the morning, Reina would be normal again. Or as close to normal as possible.

※※※※※

The following day, I spent almost the entire time with Virgilia, Ryan, and jenny. Reina would try to veer away from me when we saw each other, and left if I was in the same area. The majority of the day was a filler, just something to kill time.

"UUUUGGHHH I HAAATE THIS SHOTGUN." Ryan threw his gun at the grassy ground, then asked, "Virgilia, is there a pla-"

She cut him off by answering, "There's a weapons shop. Yes, shop. You can buy a gun or trade something, or do something for the owner. That guy NEVER runs out of stuff to do."

We entered the urban part, looking for the said armory, where I remembered the 4 men I encountered. "A Jamaican, deep voice guy, mobster, and... Jerry? Jimmy?" I muttered to myself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, come on, I think this is the place." Indeed it was. A moderate sized building, clearly the armory, stood before us. In large, blue lettering were the words 'Crazy Steve's Armory'.

Virgilia instructed us to not touch anything, and to not stare at Steve. We all agreed, then walked in. Inside, the place was really cool. Neatly arranged in glass cases were rows of guns, ranging from the tiniest peashooter to an A-10 Mounted Cannon. 5 men browsed the weapons, and at the counter sat a Chinese man, reading a newspaper. Assuming he was Steve, it was hard not to stare. He was missing an ear, and one eye was swollen. His left arm was slightly longer than the opposite, and lacked half a pinky. "I said don't look!" Attempting not to hurl at the gruesome sight, we looked away and walked around.

Jenny was with Ryan, trying to help him get a gun that would suit him. "Ooh how about that one!" She pointed to a standard marine rifle, which Ryan rejected. "THIS!" She showed him a flamethrower, which was dismissed. "How about this shotgun!"

"WE CAME HERE BECAUSE I DONT WANNA SHOTGUN!"

"Oh yea... then how about that?" motioning to a familiar gun, the pair walked to it. About the same size as a standard sniper rifle, it came with a bayonet attachment. The ammo cases held 50 bullets each, with 4 ammo cases. Everything was painted pitch-black, and the bullets and bayonet were contrasting silver. Ryan whistled and said, "Wooooow, I like it. Uhh, how do I get it?"

Steve appeared behind us and reached over Ryan, left arm reaching the gun first. "So you want this one?" Ryan nodded awkwardly, then Steve laughed and spoke something in Chinese. He moved to the counter, unlocked the sniper from its glass prison, and then returned it to Ryan. "No charge, I make gun free."

Jenny asked, "Really? That's nice."

Steve laughed, then said, "No, this gun, is ****! It not fire good. Needs work."

Rejoining Jenny and Ryan, we all walked outside, wondering how to get the free gun working again. "Well, at least it was free."

Virgilia shook her head. "True, but the repairs might cost more than just buying a new gun."

"Well I like this one..." Ryan hugged the gun, which made me wonder...

"Hey Ryan, can I see that for a minute?" He allowed me to hold the gun, which I compared to my rail gun. His gun matched the first gun I had in terms of size. Handing it back, I said, "Okay. That's all. Now, you guys remember Jordan?"

All of us remembered, except Virgilia. "Uhm, Jordan?"

"He's the guy who gave us these weapons. Before we came here. Big guy."

Virgilia suddenly recognized ho he was by the description of 'big guy', and before she could comment I Continued on, "Aaanyways, if he could make Kaelynn's sword as sturdy as it is, I think he can make a sniper rifle work again. Come on, let's go."

Virgilia led us deeper into the city, "Don't worry, there's a shortcut to the Garage. He'll probably be there."

After countless turns, we finally arrived back to a familiar surrounding we found Jordan underneath one of the Godfather's tanks, doing something. Outside, Cameron was installing an extra pair of wings to her aircraft. Only the two were there, which left an ominous silence. I cleared my throat, which got Jordan's attention. "Heed Miguel! Ryan, Jenny, and Virgilia too! Whatcha guys doin' here?"

Ryan held out his sniper, which Jordan took in his hands. the smaller one explained, "It won't fire, not correctly anyways."

"I got this, lemme just finish this tank's targeting systems and help Cameron with those wings. I'll have it ready... by the time the concert's done."

We all looked confused, then fired a salvo of questions. "What concert?"

"Who's singing?"

"When?"

"Is it free? it better be free!"

"Heck, WHERE is it?"

Jordan thought first, then answered each question in order. "Godfather's hosting a concert, and some Asian chick is singing. I think its 10:00pm-3:00am, but I'm not sure. I THINK it's free, and it's at the plains area. That all?" We all denied, then left Jordan back to his work.

Ryan said, "Well, we've got some time to kill, what you guys wanna do?"

Jenny said, "I wanna play with your sniper rifle..."

Unable to resist, I simply had to scream, "THATS WHAT SHE SAID!" Sadly, that inability earned me a punch, slap, and a tackle. Jenny hit me as hard as she could in my leg, Virgilia slapped me for some reason, and Ryan tackled me to the floor. That backfired, as I was much heavier than he was. I was able to run myself, and he ended up being he one pinned underneath. "I win."

"OH get offa me."

I rose from the smaller male, helping him up. "There you go. So, anything to do?" Virgilia suggested we explore the urban area, but jenny didn't feel like walking. I wanted to shoot things, but Ryan had no gun. Jenny felt like meeting up with the others, which was actually accepted. "Off to... Who first? Kwan and Jamie? Marlou and Kaelynn?"

"JAAMIE FIRST~!" Jenny screamed. She grabbed Ryan by his wrists and ran off to find the duo. I looked at Virgilia, who shrugged at me. Seeing no other choice, we started to chase them down. ※※※※※

Upon finding Jamie and Kwan, the day slowly became better. Jamie and Jenny's closeness influenced Ryan and Kwan, then Virgilia, who ended up dragging me into it. While the majority of day was spent talking and laughing, there were various moments that could not be laughed at. Among them were Ryan and Kwan's 'Gay love moment', Virgilia's attempt to fly, and the drooling Jenny. For a 23 year-old, Virgilia was pretty energetic. Her nonstop happy probably drove Jenny and Jamie to new heights of euphoria, which urged Kwan and Ryan to follow. But my mind was preoccupied. While they laughed, I couldn't stop worrying about my small lover. I left my friends to their merry-making, into an alleyway of the city. "I'll just... meet them at the concert. Yea, I'll find them there." Stopping to rest, Chuck said, 'Heh, if the entire city's gonna be there, I doubt you can find them.' "Well, that's where you come in! You can find Maria, which is where Virgilia is, which is probably where they are! Perf-" 'Shut up kid, 5 guys with guns walking around. They hear you, they'll hurt ya bad.' Watching the figures, I slumped into the corner, hoping to blend in with the wall. Miscoordination earned me a can crackling beneath me, which forced all heads on me. "Shiiiiiitake."

Now surrounding me, the 5 looked like a makeshift mafia. All dressed similarly, with matching hats, they DID resemble the mafia. But their variety threw you off. 1 was Chinese, clearly the leader. 2 were white, 1 black, and 1 Mexican. The Chinese man said, "Well... what have we here... ugly ass kid, sexy gun, girlfriend outfit clothes..."

"Ha, what girlfriend?" The group laughed cruelly, then the Mexican continued. "Betcha he looooves someone, but that chick be hatin on him!"

I got mad at them, laughing behind matching headgear. 'Careful kid, I can feel you getting mad.' 'HOW CANT I? The girl I think I like is pissed at me, and I'm surrounded by some gangsters,' I spoke the ending out loud. "****ING HELL."

Their laughter ceased, and so did my heart when the black man lifted me into the sky. The Chinese man pulled out a switchblade, which was placed against my throat. "So ya think you can just talk when you want to? Well lemme tell ya, you are so screwed." He dealt a blow to my gut, which was hard enough to draw blood. "Heh, weakass. I see why no chick wants you. Look at yourself." I was thrown on the floor and kicked repeatedly. "See? Weak, fat, ugly as hell. I wonder if your MOTHER loved you! Alright boys, that's enough. I wanna kill him." i was picked up again, almost grateful for the pain relief. I was so sore, bruised all over, and bleeding in some. I felt a cold blade slide across my throat, barely puncturing my skin. "Wow, never been kissed even once. You must be SERIOUSLY ****ed up. Betcha not even a low-life midget would like ya."

That set me off. 'HOLD IT KI-' Disregarding chuck, I lashed out at my assailants. "You...y-you..." Kicking my way free, a punch to a groin was enough to make the blade drop. Scrambling to pick it up, I let myself do what I was known for. Murder.

※※※※※

"Hey guys." On the Bridge, Reina slowly approached our almost complete group, barely a hint of a smile on her face. "So, where's the rest?"

Ryan said, "Well Marlou went to the bathroom,"

"I AM HERE!"

"Now he's back, and the sloth I think was with him. Virgilia went to get some info on the concert. Miguel, well he was with you."

Jaw dropping, Reina said, "He wasn't with me..." A few eyes turned. "Are you sure he didn't go with Virgilia? Or was at the bathroom?"

Hugging her miniscule friend, Kaelynn replied, "Well, he might've gone with Virgilia, maybe..."

just then, Virgilia appeared, running for her life at them. Out of breath, she attempted to speak. "Q-qui-quick! Miguel's I-in, UGH JUST FOLLOW ME!" With no hindrances, they ran like demons, towards the sorry state I was in.

※※※※※

When my friends found me, a chorus of disbelief arose from them. *My goodness...*

"Oh my god..."

"..."

"What happened?" I was found drenched in blood. In a pool of mixed blood, I was kneeling in front of a mutilated Chinese man. On what remained of his body was a note stating his name, 'Henderson'. His stomach was sliced open, organs exposed to the cold air, still dripping red liquid. All of his limbs were horrendously destroyed, and a finger jutted from his throat. While he suffered all that, his accomplices were better off, slightly. the white men had half of their skulls missing, the black man and Mexican were found with each other's limbs. 'Damn kid, you did a serious number on 'em.'

I didn't go unscathed either, I was bleeding from extra numerous knife wounds, and bruises could be seen. Reina took a single step closer, which was rewarded by Virgilia lifting her then moving her back. "Don't, he might still be a bit... killer."

"I know... but..." Reina shrugged herself free from Virgilia, then slowly made her way to the corpses and I.

Kaelynn hissed, "Don't!" but Marlou had her quiet down a bit.

Avoiding the small pools of blood, Reina edged around the bodies, trying to ignore the stench of death. A neat circle, 24 inches wide, of crimson inner liquid surrounded me and Henderson's body. A cold chill ran up Reina's spine as she tentatively stepped in, one foot at a time. "Eeep..." 'Kid, Reina's comin.' Slowly turning my head, I looked at her, half-looking like I wanted to kill her, half-looking like I need her. "Miguel...?"

The switchblade used to kill 5 men grew heavy in my hand, forcing me to drop it. Reina was now only 4 inches from me, then she kneeled, mimicking my position. "Bon Qui Qui... You okay?" No response from me. "Right... Well, I don't know what to say. Maybe I don't need to. Actions ARE better than words... right?"

With that, she jumped at me in a sudden embrace, shaking out of fear or her light sobs. Knocked out of my murderous trance, I instinctively tried to comfort her, even if I was the reason. One arm on her shoulders, I tried the 'foreign language' technique. "Hime, mon cheri, don't cry, dajiyobu." 'Smoooooth. SHE DOESNT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU CALLED HER.'

To the dismay of chuck, she replied back, seeming to understand what I said. "Hehe, I'm your darling princess?" she laughed very softly, and said, "Are you okay? You look like... well..."

"Nn, dajiyobu. And I know what I look like. Blood reflection."

"Speaking of which, can we get out of here? All the gore is making me nauseous."

I got up, unintentionally spilling blood on Reina's white clothing. "SH-"

"Its fine, just get me out of here!" I helped her up, and walked our way back to our group, who had watched the entire scene.

Marlou was the first to speak. "Well, you would do anything for each other, wouldn't you?"

Both of us retaliated, "Shut up!"

"What?"

the tension from finding me quickly evaporated, mood quickly changed when jenny suddenly remembered. "HEY Isn't that concert tonight? Like, NOW tonight?"

None of us had a watch on us, so we assumed we were late. "COME ON LETS GO!"

※※※※※

Only 3 minutes late, we walked into the concert during the familiar song of 'Houki Boshi'. Kwan had a little fetish for the original singer, and was disappointed to find someone else. "She's still hot."

All of the males agreed, then exploded in laughter. "HAHAHAHHA, WOOOOWWWWW DUDE, and WELL We gotta agree huh?"

"You perverts! At least the sloth likes me, Mr. Sloth?" Kaelynn looked around for her sloth, which was found onstage, next to the singer. "BLLAAAH TO YOU MR. SLOTH. BLAH. TO. YOU."

Another round of laughter ran around as the music rang in our ears.

Yozora wo miage hitori houki boshi ho mita no

Isshyun de hajikete wa kiete shimatta kedo

Anata no koto omou to mune ga itaku naru no

Ima sugu aitai yo dakedo sora wa tobenai kara

Moshi atashi ga houki boshi ni nareta naraba

Sora kakenuke tonda iku

Donna ashi-ta ga kite mo kono omoi wa tsuyoi

Dakara houki boshi zutto kowarenai yo.

One of the best parts of the concert would be Ryan singing along, loud enough for us able to hear it.

In a very, very, VERRYYYY off-key voice, we heard Ryan singing the next couple of lines. "AMA GA FUTTE IYADA TO BOYAITEITA TOKI NI, ANA GA II ITTA KOTO IMA DEMO OBOETERU, AMA NO ATO NO YOZOR-" The horrendous sound was cut short when he tried too hard and nearly passed out. Probably from an over exertion of effort.

All of us were having a great time, spending it with our extremely obvious... pairings. 'Kid, just come out with it, LOVERS.' 'Okay okay, fine...' We spent the entire night with our lovers, Kaelynn and Marlou going crazy with their pet sloth, Jamie hitting Kwan when he drooled over the singer, even jenny danced with a half-conscious Ryan. Reina was leaning on me heavily, laughing her uncontrollable, yet irresistible laugh. she exclaimed, "MIGUEL~"

"Yes?"

"I like you too~!" Hearing the words I longed to hear for so long, whatever events happened next were a blur compared to 4 simple words.

But, once again, Marlou ruined the moment, or rather, his sloth made the night. "RRAAWWWWGGRHHHHH!"

Collapsing on top of me, Reina and the sloth landed in a messy pile of human and animal. When the sloth crawled away, our faces were left, barely an inch apart.

"Bon Qui Qui."

"Hime-kun."

The moment reached its climax, accompanied by the perfect song, Sakura Kiss, beginning to play. Drums beginning the beat, followed by a light chorus of guitars, topped off with the vocals. Kiss Kiss Fall In Love~


	13. Progression of Time

BWAHAHAHAH FEAR THE END OF TH- What? The worlds not over? Oh. OKay then. XD I actually had this already finished yesterday, but i was at the park with a couple of friends, and didnt get to posting it. Nor did i want to. I figured i would post it today in commemoration of the end of the world. :D anyways, here is the 13th chapter, i felt like making us a LOT older, so i added the timespan of 3 years to the story. :D we're still young at heart!

Disclaimer: I own not the HOTD Storyline, nor do i own the card game mentioned later. Yes i do own a deck of the card game noted below.

Highschool of the Dead Outbreak In America

Chapter 13

Progression of Time

(1 month later...)

Ever since that night at the dance, things seemed to be much more bright around the place. Edgar, Katie and Virgilia aren't fighting as much, Marlou's insanity died down a bit, even Ryan's opening up more, thanks to jenny. Kwan and Jamie have been closer to each other, but slightly more distant from the group. I guess it's a side effect of being a year and a half older. By now, the usefulness of our weapons died down. Now they're just antiques that still work. Looking back on it, disasters really bring out what's inside of people. Before the Zombie Day 1, none of us would be as amorous as we are. There would be NO way Marlou would be caught with a sloth and Kaelynn together. Jamie and Kwan were bound to be together one day, but it took an apocalypse for me and Ryan to find someone. If the thing never happened, Ryan would never have met Jenny, which is unimaginable now. The two are inseparable, much like Reina and I are. The only other way I would have been blessed with a friend like Reina would be if God got drunk and put the two of us together in a cosmic beer party. We went everywhere together, never going alone, with the exception of the bathroom, in which case the other would wait outside. All in all, things were looking pretty good...

(17 months later...)

We're all a bit older now. We just celebrated Virgilia's birthday, heh, the lady's getting old now. Life now, just seems like the longest school break we've had. Whatever zombie attacks there happened to be were put down in a matter of hours. Our weapons are obsolete now, with the exception of my rail gun, but even that thing is gathering dust with Reina's claws on the shelves of our room. Oh yea, I forgot to mention, Godfather decided a while back that we were old enough to live separate from our guards. He claims he didn't have enough rooms for each of us, and told us to share with one other person. It took each of us 30 seconds to decide. Once we got all settled, life resumed its normality. We each ended up in our own daily routine, which was basically undisturbed for the most part. Every morning, Ryan and Kwan would go with Jordan to shoot something. During that time, Marlou would be in a large gym, keeping himself fit. In the same morning, the girls would get together and just talk about things too boring for me to describe. I decided on a new hobby, flying. Each morning I would take a bath and wash up, then head over to the newly built hangars, where Cameron, Sarah and I would go fly in our respective aircraft. Cameron flew her 6-winged pink, black and white plane, while Sarah flew in hers, massive guns and all. My aircraft was nothing special really, just a proto-type Cameron, Jordan and I worked on over the year. It used the frame of an Su-47, but the twin engines were replaced by F/A-22 model engines, and the wings were bent slightly down. The nose was shaped differently, resembling that of a Euro fighter Typhoon. The plane wasn't rigged for combat, but when ready, it would have a double barrel chain gun on its belly, and the missiles would come out of the top of the plane, as opposed to classic designs of gun in front, missiles on wings.

As we flew, we left a trail of clouds in our wake, forming white, fluffy bridges between the clouds we flew in and out of. Eventually the sky was covered in a lattice of white, and we were able to enjoy the sight from the ground for a while once we landed. Staring up at the sky, I wondered what happened to the rest of the world. If they were still infested with things, or if they were living peacefully, like we were. My mind filled with memories, from the newest with Reina, to the school days I enjoyed, even to the day I met Yuki. "Malina. Not Yuki. Gotta remember that..." Exiting the hangar to find Marlou, Ryan, and Kwan, I stopped by my room to pick up the strangest thing that could be found. Magic the Gathering Playing cards. See, as part of our daily routine, me and the guys would go to the urban area, and play a game of Magic at a public plaza, otherwise known as 'The Nerd Area'.

I found Marlou and Ryan already playing a game, with 2 onlookers. One familiar, one new. Jordan was looking at Marlou's hand, holding his own deck in his left. The other male was white, very white, and was looking at Ryan's hand. He said, "OH Play this, then that one, if you want you can play this one but you don't need it."

Ryan looked over his suggestion, then executed the idea seamlessly. He played the final card and exclaimed, "I WIN! HA!"

Marlou screamed in played out anger, tackling Ryan and friend to the ground. "I SWEAR IMMA BURN THAT CHANDRA OF YOURS."

"But she's the FIRE planes walker!"

"ILL DOUSE HER WITH MY PISS."

The four started laughing together, and I joined their mix. "HAHA, Marlou you lost again?"

The white male said, "Yep!"

Just out of formality, I introduced myself. "Miguel Rikuma, I don't believe we met before?" I outstretched my hand, which he shook firmly.

"No, we haven't! Name's James Kyota!" He noticed the cards in my hand. "You play Magic too?"

"Mhm! It's fun, especially my Artifact swarm deck."

"Oh that's WEAK. Only artifacts? Ha."

"Oh it is ON. BWAHA." We played a game, followed by a 3v3, me, Marlou, and Ryan vs. Kwan, James, and Jordan. After that we had a 6-man free for all. The whole time we were unaware of Reina, Jamie, Kaelynn, and Jenny laughing at us.

※

"Ahhhh that was fun."

"Yep."

"Yea, I needed to get away from that garage. I spend too much time there!"

The 6 of us were lounging around our table, drinking sodas and nibbling chips. Marlou said, "Well I needed to get away from Kaelynn and the sloth!" A round of laughter rose as Marlou continued, "Seriously! One day of straight up MALE power, id enjoy."

All of the males agreed with him, except for me. In my opinion, I didn't mind the constant presence of Reina. It was comforting to me, never annoying. Jordan noticed my silent disagreement, so said, "Miguel you thinkin' anything different? Looks like you have fun with your 'little lover'."

We all shared a good laugh, then I replied, "Hey, I don't mind being around her every day."

Silently, Ryan and Kwan started singing an older Disney song. " Caaan you feel, the love, tonight~ "

I slapped the both of them. "Oh be quiet! Ryan, you spend as much time with jenny as I do with Reina, and don't make me remind you that you still check out Katie! Kwan, YOU BE STARING ATJAMIE AND SARAH. ENDLESSLY. GOD." Both of them stood in awe, knowing that there was nothing they could say. "I win again boys, I win again." I turned around and began a brisk walk, exiting our playing area.

Expecting the riposite answers, I just listened to them teasing me. "Hey! Don't do anything stupid!"

"DONT LET HER PLAY WITH YOUR 'SNIPER RIFLE'!" I could hear them laughing, but I was long gone before I could understand what they said.

※

(2 years later...)

We're older now. Past our childishness, practically adults. Chuck's been quieter the past year, and he and Maria stopped going into peoples' minds together all the time. All of us have gotten more distant from each other. The solid bond between Ryan and jenny, Kwan and Jamie, Marlou and Kaelynn, and Reina and I faded into simple connections. We were just friends, no more. But that was the least of my worries. Over the 2 years, my habit of killing things has gotten worse. I've been coping with it by going into back alleys, hunting animals, and destroying target dummies. But it wasn't enough. The urge was becoming more and more irresistible. Then I had a crazy idea. Of course, being near my thoughts, Chuck said, 'Kid, are you SERIOUS?That's SUICIDE.' "Well what else am I gonna do!" I hung my legs over the bridge's edge, frustrated at myself. "Chuck, do you miss Maria?" 'What?' "Do you miss Maria? You guys haven't talked much over the years." The voice sighed, 'Not a day goes by wishing she would visit your head someday.' "Why don't you go visit her?" 'I'm chained here. By my own will, I'm forcing myself to stay.' "Why?" 'You remember what happened when I left? 39 dogs. Dead.' "Right... right..." 'Anyways, you still serious about that idea?' I sat in silence, thinking of what I was going to do. My plan was to take my jet, find a zombie-infested area, fly into it, and kill them. That way, zombies are dead, and I get my fill of killing. 'Kid...' "I'm sorry. You can leave once I'm there. I'm going through with it." 'Alright then...'

※

I made my way into the hangar, where Cameron was sleeping on a chair, slightly indecent clothing. "I'm not thinking what she did..." I opened the hangar doors, which made a loud noise, which woke up Cameron.

Ignoring the awake person, I jumped into my jet and slowly started the engines. Cameron was screaming at me through the windows, but I couldn't hear her. Moving my plane into take-off position, I began accelerating, pulling up once I hit 350mph. Meanwhile, at the godfather's ever-busy command room, once of the radar men shouted out, "Unconfirmed take-off, callsign 'Sky Cobra', affiliation... Oh damnit."

The godfather strode to the worker and asked, "What? What is it?"

"S-sir, its Miguel's plane."

"Ohhhh that boy. Gonna get himself killed one day."

Jonathan stepped up, "I can chase him down. Just get me a fast plane and a lot of fuel."

"No, too risky. You might end up being shot down. Either by the Hornets, Hawks, or Miguel." The hawks were another strand of zombie. More aerodynamic than the Hornets, the hawks resembled large, bald, acid-spitting hawks. "But... If you took Cameron, Sarah, 2 squads of fighters, 1 of bombers, and Reina with you. I will let you go."

"Reina? Why her?"

"She will be needed in case Miguel turns on us. In the event he does, he won't touch her."

After thinking for 3 seconds, Jon left the command room to get the necessary members.

※

"Siiiiiiiigh. What happened in 2 years." Reina was layed across the bed, listening to 'Dear You' from an anime we used to watch.

As the chorus began, Jonathan barged through the front door. "Reina! Come with me. Get your weapon!"

"What? Why! Are the zombies back?"

Before leaving, Jon joked, "No, but your boyfriend is gone." Then he left.

"The fuuu...?" Reina bolted out the door, dusty metallic claws put on. "What're we doing?"

Taking massive strides that equaled 5 of Reina's, Jon answered, "Miguel was confirmed leaving 3 hours ago. We're sending out a team to retrieve him, but we'll need you in the situation that he turns on us."

"COULD YOU SLOW DOWN!"

"I'm speaking slowl-"

"YOUR WALKING! I CAN BARELY KEEP UP!" Jon slowed down considerably, which caused Reina to walking his back. "Jesus... so...basically, you need me, a tiny girl, to guard a squadro-"

"3 squadrons plus your group."

"3 squadrons plus my group, from 1 guy. That's degrading." The beauty and the giant collected the others of our group, and met up at the hangar to choose our planes.

Cameron and Sarah chose their own planes, while Jon took a normal F-16C. Eyeing around, Marlou saw a gun. A very big gun. A very big gun attached to a very big AC-130 Gunship. "CALL THE BIG PLANE!"

Cameron said, "Its an 8 man ship! 2 pilots, 6 gunners!"

Marlou did a quick head count, "We have 7! We'll just not use a gun!"

Giving up, Cameron went back to her plane diagnostics. Our group took automatic positions, Marlou and Kaelynn with the 120mm cannons, Jamie and jenny manning the 50mm, and a massive chain gun turret was manned by Ryan. Reina, on a box, and Kwan were at pilot, following the basic way to drive: Ignore everything except the thing that steers, the thing that speeds, and the thing that stops. Moments later, the fleet was in the sky, approaching the chaos I got myself in.

※

'SEE KID, I TOLD YOU THIS WAS A BAD IDEA.' 'Well I didn't think we would be in this situation!' I was hiding behind a pile of rocks that serves its purpose as a sound buffer. Since zombies' only sense was hearing, all I had to do was remain quiet. Then again, it's pretty damn hard to be quiet when there are 15,000 zombies around you, oblivious to your presence. Scary stuff. I dared not talk out loud for fear that they would all notice my presence, so I just kept quiet and thought all of my replies. 'Chuck, you see any way we can get out of here?' He thought back, 'Tell me why we can't just walk really quietly away from them? They can't feel, so if we walk into one, they wouldn't notice right?'

I thought about it for a minute, weighing the actual chances that his idea would work. On one hand, it was flawless in theory. As long as we kept quiet, and didn't make noise, we could walk right through them. ON the other hand, it was very likely we would make a noise of some sort. The very sand-rock terrain we were in had plenty of rocks strewn about, ready to be tripped or kicked aside. 'Okay Chuck, let's just wait here and hope that either A, they make their way far enough from us that we can run the hell away, or B, something comes by and helps us out.' Chuck sighed to himself, then thought, 'Fine. I'll scream at you later when we're forced to run.' We ended up waiting for less than 2 hours when the sound of airplane engines roared overhead.

※

In the C-130, Reina retook her title as leader after 3 years, and began belting out commands to the people in the aircraft. "Marlou! 2 shots into the middle! Kaelynn, soften up the surrounding area!" The two followed their directions, so Reina continued on to Ryan and Jenny. "You two! You got lucky, shoot what you want, you get free rein!" The duo began unleashing round after round into the massive horde of Zombies on the ground, tearing holes in the uncommanded dead army. "Ryan! Shoot stuff, and look for Miguel while you're at it!" The fortress in the sky reigned supreme in destroying the enemy horde, but it still wasn't enough to kill everything.

It was unfair really, the zombies couldn't do anything to our aircraft, and we could do what we wanted. All the problem was the sheer number of them, how much ammo we had, and the fact that they didn't know where I was. And I was the only one that could actually be killed while trying to save me. How ironic. The fact of me being mixed with the swarm made it a 75% chance that they you get me in a missile blast along with the zombies. That's comforting. Seeing as the rock cover I was using wouldn't hold up against a missile, much less Kaelynn's 120mm cannon, I began running for my life, shooting at what was in front of me. "BWAHAHAHAHAH NO REASON FOR ME TO HIDE ANYMORE!"

In the sky, Ryan noticed the familiar glow of my rail gun blasts, and relayed the information to Reina. "OI Reina, MIGGLE'S DOWN THERE STILL!" Unreactingly, she kept flying the massive plane around, getting the best firing points for the gunners. "Did you hear me? Your boyf-"

She turned the plane sharply 90 degrees and back, throwing Ryan around in his seat. "SHUT UP, I KNOW, IM TRYING NOT TO GET HIM KILLED!" With that she went back to her normal flight pattern, watching the scene via radar and the window.

※

(Somewhere deep in the roots of the Zombie infestation...)

"Hmmm... these humans are pesky little creatures aren't they... Then again, they are the basis of my creations." a deep voice, the same voice that came from the pudgy man from our first Spawner Strain, was sitting on an organic chair, fashioned from the remains of his victims. His palace, well, what I THINK was his palace was made of the basically the exact same things. Dead bodies, stuck together by dried blood and some sort of black substance, tar maybe. The building was massive, easily matching the size of the most spectacular Persian castle. At the lowest of the lair was the 'opening'. A 2 centimeter wide orifice that expanded to over 13 feet was the only opening that didn't involve blowing a hole into the side of something. A horde of basic zombies and intimidating Strains stood guard. Right in front of the entrance stood something that looked like and infested elephant. Like the elephant, it was big, but unlike the elephant, its tusk dripped acid. Its tusks looked beefed up, ready to cleave whatever was in front of it. That might explain the empty area anterior to the beast. Hornets floated in the sky above the Palace, while Hawks endlessly patrolled. Well over 500,000 zombies were on the outside, god knows how many more were inside. The voice was still unseen, only the voice was audible. "This is getting boring." A wave of energy rolled across the land, through trees, over canyons, beneath waves, and reached the battlefield we were in.

※

"Ma'am! We just lost radar for a good 3 minutes! And all electric functions! We're getting a steady stream o- Never mind. Everyone's screaming the same thing!"

The not-so veteran pilots were all screaming at each other in a panic, all of their electrical systems shorted out for a solid 3 minutes, which meant no radar, no communications, no nothing that involved electricity. They could fly, but only with their eyes.

In the C-130, things held together, crewman wise. With only a 3 degree error in flight pattern, Reina said, "You guys fine?"

"Yep, the cannon still works, but its back to eyesight targeting."

"Same here!"

Kwan unnecessarily said, "The radar's fried."

"I know that. I'm the pilot. I THINK ID NOTICE THE RADAR BLOWN." Reina crisply told Kwan.

Kwan, now ready to run out of his seat, came out with, "wow. Somebody's snappy."

"Am not!"

"Right, right, now land the thing so we can get Miggle and GET outta here!"

Grudgingly, Reina slowly landed the ship, then the 7 person crew piled out. "Okay, so who knows where Miguel is? Ryan, you found him, where was he?"

Ryan Looked around, trying to find anything that could have been Miguel. "Uhh, it was a lot easier when we were in the sky..." If I didn't have a rail gun that sent supererogatory blasts of plasma whenever it shoots, we would have gone in circles for who knows how long. But, since I DO have one, a couple of shots gave off enough flash to signal where I was. "FOUND HIM!"

Skyward, planes patrolled the area where I shot my rail gun at, searching for the source of the light. I was going to shoot another blast into the sky, to reaffirm them of my position, when 4 green blobs tore into one squadron of bombers, which fell to the ground, covered in acid. I turned to the direction of the projectile, and to my horror found hundreds upon hundreds of Hawks quickly approaching our meager forces. Just before the next plane fell, the pilot quickly put out the code for a hawk swarm. "8 1 23 11!" Then his plane hit the ground.

For those in the sky, it was clear that there was no way they could win against a swarm of that size with our remaining forces. Cameron told her forces, "LETS GET OUT OF HERE, ALPHA, COVER SARAH, BETA, COVER JON!"

"What? I don't need the help!"

"Yep. Cover him." Quickly, every plane in the sky turned around and headed back to base, where the updated AA defenses would tear apart the army. For the time being, they looked pretty well off. For US, we were screwed. We were still on the ground, now directly underneath the swarm. We couldn't take off without attraction at least 2,000 of the Hawks to us, and even if we could take off, the plane was too slow to get out of the danger zone.

In the meantime, we were stranded here. At the least, there was a deep cave that we could use as shelter. Still the leader, Reina directed us into the cave, where we would spend the day until it was definitive that there was nothing inside. In theory, the Hawks couldn't fly into the cave and fight at the same time, and only a few zombies could pass through the chokepoint at a time. We walked around the cave, making sure that we remembered which directions we turned. Kaelynn asked, "How long are we gonna be here?"

"I don't know, I'm hoping only a day or two, but something might go wrong."

I said, "Well, the only danger I can see would we run out of water. Other than that, I think we're fine."

Reina looked at me and said, "What makes you so positive? We're in a cave, it's basically pitch black, we're all alone, and on top of it all its FREEZING."

"We're alone? Hime, there are 8 people here, all very good friends. It is true that we have grown more distant over the time of 3 years, but we are still friends. From before the outbreak, to the day we die together."

She pouted then mumbled, "Still cold in here..."

"There is a very simple cure for that."

"And what's tha-"

Before she finished I grabbed her and pulled her close. "Biologically, if mammals stay close to each other they can share the heat emanating from their bodies and keep themselves warm."

It was true, we both felt warm quickly, sharing the heat generated from inside us, but mine lacked spirit. The feeling you get from holding a love close wasn't there. It was replaced by sheer mind power, warm, but unpleasurable. Around us, the other 6 members huddled close together. Reina began leaning heavily, seeming to try and get me to tell her something. It implied that she knew that there was something wrong. Females and their telepathy. With nothing to be done, we waited for the day to pass...

※

(16 hours later, 1:00am...)

We're all freezing. We're in one big group now, sleeping, barely keeping warm. There is absolutely no light, it's too dark outside for any light to get through to us. We only know the other person is there by sense of touch, and the sound of unique breaths. We all breathed differently, Marlou's breaths were shallow, whereas Kaelynn's were moderately deep. Reina inhaled and exhaled in quick, shallow bursts when she was worried, and is breathing in that way at the moment. My breaths cycled in long, deep successions, speeding up slightly when exhausted. Other than those sounds, the only noises came from outside. The wind blowing past, the faint sound of an owl. It was all quiet. Suddenly a vociferous blast woke each one of us.

"WHAT WAS THAT!"

By pure human instinct, I grabbed the closest thing I could reach and held on to it for dear life. That thing just so happened to be Reina. "Bon Qui Qui?" I let go of her, then nearly jumped to the ceiling when the next blast rang. By the time I came back to the ground, I was shaking faster than a P90's firing rate. "Bon Qui Qui, are you... scared?"

I nodded, unwilling to admit it with words. 'Whoa. Did NOT see that coming kid.' Before anyone could pity me, I shakily uttered, "Ignore it... we all get scared at one point." after saying that, I went back to sleep, letting the others do what they wanted. Another blast sounded, and I gave up sleeping.

※

(The next day...)

After we woke up from a restless night, we made our way back outside the cave. We planned on getting back to the AC-130 and flying back to base, but like Reina said, something went wrong. "Ahhhhh ****. This WOULD be our luck."


	14. Lovers Once More

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LATE POSTING! I know i try to post weekly, but i have my excuses!

1) Im Graduating from middle school FINALLY. So, i'm busy with celebratory celebrations, sad that im never seeing my friends again TT^TT, and I'm working for a tutoring business, so i can't write very much on weekdays. I write most of these at night, but i've been doing quite a bit of stuff, so i'm tired at night.

2) I have somethings that take priority, like my forced Karate performances TT^TT

3) I lost the will to write. Heck, this chapter might be the last for a while.

Well, that's it. I do hope i dont give up on this story, but I'll be writing a different story soon. It'll be on , and i shall post the details at the end once i have the first chapter posted. Now read, Review, and wish me luck in highschool.

Chuck: 'And he's STILL single...'

Me: SILENCE. Thats why i paired myself...

※※※※※

Highschool of The Dead Outbreak In America

Chapter 14

Lovers Once More

Just as we all expected, something HAD to go wrong with our escape. Reina knew exactly where she had left the AC-130, but when we got to it, there was only a pile of 3 things. 1, twisted, horribly distorted metal, beyond any usefulness to us. 2, puddles of acid, still bubbling. And 3, dead zombie corpses. Jamie looked at the wreck and said, "Wow. How are we gonna get back now?"

Ryan's first answer was, "We could walk." Then he realized how far it was from our location, to the base we came from. "Never mind..." It took them a while to get here, and would most likely take over a month to walk back.

Our hope right now was relocating. Again. At least that's what crossed my mind; I didn't know what the others were thinking until they spoke their thoughts. "Well, you guys have any good ideas? I don't see anything we can do except walk home and hope that we get lucky." Kaelynn sat down on a nearby rock, then jumped right back up as the rock squirmed underneath the sudden weight. "EEEP!" The rock began to scuttle away, revealing a strange looking creature.

I have no idea what it was called, or why it was there, but if it was here, that means that organic beings could survive. I smirked to myself and said, "Heh, looks like the little crab thingy's gonna lead us to a place we can chill for a bit." I quickly signaled the other 7 people to follow me, and the creature, hoping that it wouldn't end up at a place suitable only for smaller beings.

Marlou was the first to think of that as well, "Hey, what if it leads us to a not-so-people-friendly place? Like, what if we can't live?"

Kaelynn, with a lack of sloth to hold on to, grabbed Marlou's hand and whispered, "Here's hoping..."

For over an hour, we walked, following a rock crab, running on no food, water, and barely a shred of hope. As the crab approached the beginnings of a forest, our group began to slow down, being cautious of the surroundings. At first, the plants grew sparsely, only a few trees every couple of yards. Within 5 minutes, the green began to be everywhere. Moderately sized trees grew on top of grass, flattened by something big. Vines constantly obscured the pathway, but our blades made short work of them. 'It's funny how wherever you are, those damn weapons are always with ya.'

Ignoring the voice, I kept moving, keeping close behind Reina. She asked, "Hey where'd Mojo go?"

"Mojo?"

"I named the crab thingy Mojo. Now where is he? She?" It was true, the crab that had led us to a wall of leaves disappeared. It left us to a wall of leaves, that light shined through. That meant the other side was facing the sun, and seeing as we had no other choice, we walked into the grassy door.

"Oh, well this is..."

"Different."

※※※※※

At his desk, grandfather was thinking of how to find and retrieve us while being cost-effective. His room was brightly lit, the main source being a chandelier hanging in the middle. The old leader sighed deeply and mumbled to himself, "Those kids... To think we found them 3 years ago... They've gotten old, Heh."

While the godfather went reminiscing of the past, his son was taking a more direct approach to finding us. He took the three who knew us best, Virgilia, Cameron, and Katie, and allowed them to help finding us. Things like what we were likely to do, any predictions, where we might be was useful. Virgilia asked, "What frequency does the rail gun fire on?"

Cameron asked, "Frequency?"

Virgilia responded, "As far as I know, the plasma that comes out of the gun has to be vibrating at a certain speed to be that hot. That vibration speed has a unique frequency, which we can detect so long as we're in range and we have the exact frequency." Cameron was completely lost. "In layman's terms, the thing moves back and forth really really fast, which we can find."

She was still lost. One of the smarter techies understood though. In a very nasal voice, the worker answered, "Well, only the manufacturer or someone with the schematics would know that frequency." almost losing her temper, Virgilia struggled to calmly ask, "So who's got the schematics?"

"Erm... I don't know."

The much taller woman slammed her fist into the nerds face, red eyes seething with anger. "GODDAMNIT, I WANT THOSE SCHEMATICS. GET THEM SOMEHOW, KILL THE GUY WHO HAS 'EM, GET THE CREATOR, I DONT CARE, BUT GET THOSE PLANS!"

Everyone except for Jon shrunk beneath the one-woman army. The room was silent, save for the moans of a nerd with a broken nose. Sarah then said, "Virgilia..."

"WHAT IS IT?"

"Jordan's got th-" Before she finished, Virgilia ran off full speed, leaving behind her figure in her wake. "Plans."

※※※※※

Without stopping once, Virgilia got to the armory, out of breath and still fuming. She was ready to scream at Jordan for his copy of the plans, but when she arrived at the entrance, she found a blue sticky note. It read, 'At lunch, will be back in an hour. Or 3. Depends on how much food I get.' Slumping to the ground, Ms. Lambdadelta sunk to her knees in defeat, tired, sore, and worried. By their count, we had been gone for 4 days, absolutely no trace of us was ever found since that day the battle ensued. She hung her head, letting her long, shining hair fall over her face. "Some guard I am..."

Suddenly a loud, deep voice resonated from behind her. "You need anything?" With a high-pitched squeal shrill enough to shatter glass, Virgilia jumped up in shock. "Whoa lady! Its just me Jordan! I got back from lunch, they didn't have any lasagna."

Heart still beating rapidly, Virgilia looked at the large man's face. She felt a wave of relief coarse through her, then refocused on her task. "Hey Jordan, you know rail gun of Miguel's?"

"Yea, why?" Jordan unlocked the door, and being his chivalrous self let Virgilia enter first. "Ignore the electricity beams in the corner there, and stay outside of the turquoise tape."

Looking around, Virgilia saw random beams of electricity flowing in one corner, but would not flow outside a boundary marked by turquoise tape. "Mhhhhm, anyways, the gun, you made it right?"

"Ehh, sorta."

"What do you mean, 'sorta'?"

"Well, I didn't make everything. In fact I was the assistant to the lead assistant in the team I worked with."

Strike 1. No creator, but maybe plans and schematics. "Ohh, I see. Who was the creator then? The head honcho? And by any chance, do you happen to have the plans to the gun?"

Jordan looked at her like she was crazy then took a bite out of his sandwich. In between chewing he said, "Well, i never knew the creator actually. No one did except the lead assistant. Aaaaand I don't believe I have anything... Wait, why do you need them?"

"Your friends got themselves lost in the middle of heck, and we need to find them. Some crack head said if we can get the frequency that the gun fires on, we can search for it on that wavelength." *Virgilia-sama? You were the crackhead.* Failed Moment. "Aaaanyways, are you sure you don't have any?"

"I'm sure, the last of the plans went with... Actually I don't know. The lead assistant chic-"

"The lead assistant was female?"

Jordan sensed that he was soon to be hurt, and stammered out, "Err- Erm, yea! Sh-sh-sh-sh-she was a girl! Tall, shoulder length, black hair. I think she had some highlights..."

As Jordan droned on about this assistant, Virgilia looked around his mess of a room. At the foot of his bed were drawers, overflowing with blue papers. *Would that be a good place to start?* "Yea, let's go." She opened the first couple of drawers and sifted through them, but found mainly vehicle plans. The next 2 drawers were weapon filled, but contained no schematics of the rail gun.

For the next part of the hour she searched for the plans, then Jordan said something that made her search useless. With a triumphant tone, Jordan said, "OH WAIT, I just remembered, the Lead assistant was crazy paranoid about the gun, so she destroyed any plans and killed everyone who worked there! She locked a bunch of us up in a room and filled it with deadly gases. I think only 3 people got out of the room she filled, they were me, the Lead scientist, and some other dude. I think his name was Rick. BUT ABOUT THE PLANS, if I remember, she kept one copy for herself."

"So do you know where she is? Or at least WHO?"

"Yea, hold on... I think her name was..."

"WELL!"

"Malina I think, or was it Yuki... Bah, doesn't matter."

※※※※※

When we went past the grassy door, we expected more, well, grass. Instead, we were led to an oasis. Some sort of tree grew enough to give shade and still let enough sunlight to get through, while it left the blue pool open to the sunlight. The pool was the exact same as any natural body of water, except there were absolutely no animals in it. Most of the time, when you find some water, there are either animals drinking from it, or something aquatic living there. The searing heat made the water look like heaven, and if we didn't stop to remember that we had nothing to change into, nor did we have any swimming clothes, we would've all jumped right in. Kaelynn said, "BLAAAAAAAH, water and we can't go into it. PERFECT."

Her face scrunched up in annoyance, but changed into disgust when Marlou said, "Well you could still go in. You'd just be soaking wet. Which I don't mind..."

"YOU PERVERT." She attacked him while screaming too fast for any of us to understand clearly. ". JUSTBECAUSEI'MMEDOESNTMAKEITANYBETTER." She ran him into a tree, which dropped something onto her head. "Ouuuuuch..."

While we were laughing at Marlou's expense, Jamie picked up the large, yellow fruit that fell. It was softer than we expected it to be, but would only open when the stem was pulled out. Jamie took out one of her swords and began peeling the fruit, letting the yellow peels fall to the grass. We watched as she took an experimental bite out of it, and all jumped when she expressed her thought of the fruit. "OH MY GOD THIS IS DELICIOUS!" Within the next few minutes, we were all eating the fruits, letting the skin fall into one huge pile. On the third of my fruit, I got tired of peeling them, so I tried taking a bite out of it, peel and all. Bad choice. A taste of succulence and extreme bitterness flooded my mouth. While the sweetness cancelled the bitterness, the bitter was still too much, and I spit out a yellow mixture, but not before I swallowed a nice portion of the peel. "Blleehh... hey guys? Don't eat the skin. Nasty stuff..."

We sat, laughed, and ate for the next couple of hours, until we were all consumed by the searing heat. We left to try and cool down, and most of us sat beneath a tree, but I chose a spot near the pool. Rolling up my pants, I put my feet into the water, slowly putting in the rest of my leg. The water was cool, just enough to relieve the heat, and I splashed some water onto my face. By the time the rest knew of the coolness, I was already wading around in knee-deep water. Jenny was the last to join us in the pool, and nearly sunk herself completely in the water, trying to rush. We had no idea how long we stayed there, but shortly after getting in the water, we started splashing each other around. A jet of water from Kaelynn hit Marlou's face, which he returned by sending the both of them underwater. When they came up, both were soaking wet, but having fun. Then we all went splashing. Ryan, Jenny, Kwan, and Jamie were throwing water, while me, Marlou, Reina, and Kaelynn were throwing each other around. Marlou pushed me back into Reina, who fell into a sudden drop that we both felt. With her being short, she didn't have much of her body above water, so couldn't take much of a breath before falling. Instinctively, she grabbed my leg and clung on for dear life. "HOY COULD I GET SOME HELP!" I wasn't the best swimmer without my legs, and I didn't want to risk kicking Reina. Before any help arrived however, she was already scrambling up, using me as a ladder.

She finally resurfaced, taking in huge lungfuls of air. "NEVER, AGAIN. BON QUI QUI, GET ME OUT OF HERE."

Unwilling to let go until she could reach land, I was forced to drag her to shore. "Better?"

She nodded once, then said, "Migueeeel, I'm sleepy. Don't let Marley pull any pranks. Okaaaay?"

She didn't let me reply, as she fell asleep the next second. "Actually, I'm a bit sleepy myself."

"Aye!"

"Me too." The remaining 6 made back to land, girls on one side, and guys on the other. Being the perverts we are, we males had a hard time keeping eyes away from the dripping clothing of the females. The females fell asleep first, and thankfully for them the males fell asleep soon after.

My eyes slowly became heavier, until I let them close and fall asleep.

"SQUURRRAAAWWWWKKK!"

※※※※※

Upon waking up, the night was already fallen, a gentle breeze blowing. Still incredibly drowsy, I stood up and went to the pool to try and wake myself up. I tried every trick to wake myself up more, but nothing was working. I couldn't fall back asleep either, which was a pain. Instead went for a little walk. Grabbing my rail gun, I walked past the grassy door from where we entered, and just barely missed something big takeoff. REALLY big. "What was that..." With eyes half closed, I looked towards the figure in the sky,. It quickly disappeared back into the oasis, landing with a loud thud. I walked inside, seeing the silhouette of a bird against the trees. But this bird was massive, just barely underneath the trees. On two scraggly legs, it walked to a certain tree, and used its beak to pick up something. The thing it picked up was pretty floppy, and it moved around like a human. The shape was vaguely human too... "WAIT A MINUTE!" The thing turned to face me. "Oh... shoulda kept quiet." Luckily for me, it ignored me. Unluckily for the person in its mouth, it started moving away. "Hey! Get ba- WHOA!" I started to chase after it, but tripped on a rock in the pursuit. Instead of wasting my time trying to chase a fully awake monster of a bird, I raised aimed a wobbly rail gun at the beast and fired. It missed the target, which was its head, but it grazed the beast's long neck, which was enough to force it to drop the person. I still had no idea who the person was, but I assumed it was one of ours, seeing as we were the only people around. 'KID, ITS COMING AT YOU!' I turned to face the creature, but was knocked back into a tree. "Ugghfff." I aimed my rail gun up, for no particular reason, and by sheer luck I hit the bird, which was standing over me.

"SQQUUAAAAAAKKKK!" The bird opened its massive wings, then bent its legs, finally jumping and flapping to take off. The wind was a massive updraft, more than enough to send me up a couple of feet.

Unknown to what happened to my friends, I went to the seemingly most injured person. I found him, or her, floating in the middle of the pool, so I dropped my rail gun and waded out to get him/her. Once I reached the person, I put priorities first and brought her back to shore. I only assume its a she because of the two mounds I felt on my back. "Okay, now let's see who you could be..."

I moved her matted hair from her face, and everything around us seemed to become still, and quiet. She slowly opened her eyes, looked at me and felt the same feeling of recognition. "Hi Miguel."

"Hello Yuki."

※※※※※

"MA'AM! WE FOUND AN ENERGY SPIKE NORTHEAST OF OUR WESTERN OUTPOST! I don't know if its the gun, but it was powerful!"

Virgilia was already at the side of the worker who said that. "Where? Never mind, just get 3 jeeps out there ready to get them!"

"Ehh, Jordan stopped production of the Jeeps. He's replacing them with this sort of tan-"

"JUST GET THEM OUT THERE AND READY TO PICK THEM UP."

"Yes Ma'am!"

Within 2 hours, a force of 3 experimental tanks and a helicopter was ready to move. Virgilia was in the middle tank, while Cameron and Sarah were in the other two tanks. "Let's go!" They set off towards the source of the energy spike, all the while being followed by a massive bird, shrouded by the night time darkness.

※※※※※

"Wow, it's been a while hasn't it?"

"Yea, we're all 3 years older now. So much more... matured."

"Mhm, you look... gorgeous."

"Awh, thanks. You don't look bad yourself."

Yuki and I were sitting together, feet in the water, catching up on what we've missed in the other's lives in the 3 years we haven't seen one another. "So tell me, that day we lost you, where'd you go?"

She looked down at her feet in the water. She radiated a very sad aura, which gave me the impression she didn't want to talk about it. As I was about to change the subject, she began crying. By instinct, I scooted closer, held her close and tried comforting her. For 3 years, she was never thought of, replaced by Reina. But now, holding the dead girl of the past, I remembered why I fell for her in the first place. Thinking back on it, she hasn't changed much. Her skin was still the same tan, just as soft as the first time I felt her. Her eyes still harbored a secretive look hidden beneath brown eyes. But she seemed to have trouble focusing. "I-I-I'm sorry... its just, the thing that came next was so... HORRIFYING!"

She broke down again, this time much more loudly. "Shhh... its okay... you can tell me anything... just like 3 years ago..."

Slowly but surely, she began to quiet down, eventually stopping altogether. "Miguel I'm cold." She shivered in the wind, as she felt colder than I did due to her wet clothing.

"Oh, uh... well I can shield you from the wind, but I don't think I can get you warm."

She seemed to have an idea, "Can't you stay clo- oh yea..." that quickly died out.

"What?"

"I had an idea, but its stupid."

"Come on, tell me!"

"Well, I was thinking, we could, well..." 'SHUT UP AND QUIT MUMBLING!' "That we could, sleep together?"

Complete silence. We both felt the same to each other, but I couldn't betray Reina like this. "Erm... Well, you know the thing between me and Reina... ACTUALLY!" I had an idea that satisfied all 3 parties. "We could sleep next to Reina!"

"Wait... you said we."

"What about it?"

"Nothing, nothing, I like that idea though."

We moved to the fast asleep Reina, all curled up like an armadillo. We lay down facing each other, probing the other one's mind through the eyes. I gave up the battle and closed my eyes, letting myself fall asleep. Just before slipping off, I mumbled, "Goodnight Yuki. I won't lose you again."


	15. A Turn For The Worse

Mkay, So i just felt like posting this rushed chapter so i could get to work on my other story. I finally graduated from middle school, and I already miss my friends. x) Anyways, due to certain events on that day, I've been in a fluffy writing mood. SO go look around in my profile for The Princess and The Admiral. If anyone has a better name for it, give it to me pleeeease xD I hate the name. I really do.

* * *

Highschool of The Dead Outbreak in America

Chapter 15

A Turn For The Worse

"Ahh..." I woke up feeling refreshed, ready to tackle the world. Finding Yuki brought back a feeling of protectiveness; I thought she didn't change much over 3 years. To me, she was still the sensitive badass. I haven't seen her fight lately, so I'm no longer sure of her fragility. I checked on her right after checking Reina. 'Hey kid, who you gonna choose?'

"What?" 'Well ya can't have BOTH of them, so which one? I don't think they'll both go out with ya at the same time.' "..." I hadn't thought of that. I was so entirely focused on Yuki that I forgot of Reina being my... I don't know if it's a love right now. "We'll see chuck. We'll see..."

I walked to the pool, readying to wash my face in the water. Instead of scooping water and bringing it to my face, I just dunked my head into the water. The cool liquid felt refreshing on my face, but not up my nose. The water rushed into my nose, and I reared my head up. I didn't expect to hit something. "Fffffffaaaaacccc..." I turned around to see what I hit, and I saw a new person.

She was obviously female, 'Why are there so many chicks in this world?' She looked about the same height as Yuki, maybe the same hair, I believe the same skin. If she wasn't wearing a mask, I would expect Yuki's face as well. "Who are you? Agh my head..."

She didn't bother to reply, merely knocking me back into the water and leaving without a trace. Yuki heard the splash, which woke her up. She ran over to my wet situation and tried helping me up. I say tried because she ended up falling into the water. "Eeep!" we both laughed and dragged ourselves out of the water. She told me, "Let's go wake up everyone else, I'm sure they'll love to see you like this again!"

"After breakfast." I knocked a yellow fruit to the ground, and began peeling it. I split it in two and tried giving half to her, but she just gasped and kicked both of them away. "OUCH! What was that for?"

"Do you know what that is! It's the Fruit of the Damned Bird!" She was looking panicked now. "If you eat it, you fall asleep for DAYS."

I retaliated, "Then tell me, how come I'm awake? I ate a bunch of them and I'm awake."

She looked confused, like there was something wrong with that statement. She snapped her fingers and explained to me. "You ate some of the flesh! That bitter taste cures the sleepy chemical from the fruit! Come on help me get some into your friend's mouths!"

We began harvesting the peels of the fruits, stuffing some into their mouths and grinding them to be swallowed. Our first victim was Reina, who quickly choked on the horrible fruit skin. "ACCKK BON QUI QUI WHYD YOU PUT IT THERE?" She tried pushing me away, but stopped as she realized we weren't alone. "Oh my god..."

Yuki looked at her, "Hi..."

Without more words, Reina got up and walked into the pool. Yuki and I kept curing the others, trying to keep contact to a minimum. When we finally fed Kaelynn her fruit skin, we stayed back until everyone was fully awake. Yuki whispered, "Should I like, show myself?"

"If you want to, I think they'll be fine with it."

She nodded, then held my hand and walked us to the group. They were washing themselves, attempting to remove the sleepy from their eyes. Kaelynn stretched her skinny frame out, then said, "Well, now that we're up, where to? Migue- Whoa."

She looked at me, then yuki, and back again. Marlou and Kwan took notice, and they both said, "Hey it's that hot Asian chick!"

We all began laughing at that, and then we spent the hour catching up with Yuki. The only one who didn't talk to her was Reina, whom I feared was, well, jealous. I brought her with me to a secluded area, and asked, "Hime, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." She said sharply.

"No, it's not nothing. You've seemed mad and worried since you saw yuki. What is it?"

"Nothing! There's nothing wrong! It's just... You used to like Yuki..."

I realized what she was saying, and took hold of her hands. Her small pale hands contrasted with my larger, more war-torn hands. I slowly moved them up her arms, reaching her shoulders. I cupped her cheek with one hand, stroking her hair with the other. "Listen, Reina. If you ever doubt who my heart belongs to, remember the day of the dance." I gave her a light hug, and brought her back to the rest. I announced, "All right guys! we're heading back to the base! Grab whatever you may need, it'll be 4 day's journey at least."

It took 45 seconds to pack all of our things. We exited our little oasis, and wondered where exactly to go. Yuki said, "Hey, I know a place we could go, if we leave now, we might make it by nightfall." We agreed, and followed her northwards. We stayed in our pairs, me in between Yuki and Reina. Yuki said, "Oh, and just a heads up, they're all girls. The entire village consists of girls."

The guys looked at each other, then we all cried in unison, "Can we get there faster?"

※※※※※

"Are we there yet?" Virgilia was riding in the jeep, getting tired of the long trip.

"Not quite yet ma'am, just another 10 minutes at most.

"UGGHHHH." 10 minutes later, they finally arrived to where we WERE. By the time they found our oasis, we had already left for the place Yuki explained. Virgilia asked, "So, where are they?"

"I have noooo idea honestly. Maybe we miscalculated a bit?"

Cameron looked around at what we left behind. "Naaah, I'm pretty sure they were here. Only Kwan eats this messily." She motioned to a massive pile of peels. "What did they eat here? God there's so much of it lying around."

One of the soldiers picked a fruit up. "It looks like it came from this thing, whatever it is." he stared at it for a little while, then took a bite out of it. He choked on the skin and wasted no time telling the rest of them not to eat the skin. No one bothered to try one.

Virgilia ended the moment by asking, "Well, anyone have any idea where to go?"

Sarah looked at the ground, trying to find some tracks. "Well, there are some barely visible imprints of human feet. We can assume that these are theirs."

She began to follow them, when the pilot of the helicopter broadcasted a message. "Negative, godfather just sent a message. He wants us to call it over, give up searching for them."

The three female commanders began arguing with the pilot. "WHAT?" "How can we just leave them?" "Why does he want us to abandon our friends? After all they've done for us!"

The pilot said, "Well I don't know, but orders are orders, and he wants you guys back at base."

"And if we refuse?"

After a deep sigh the pilot said, "Well, he was expecting this. I'm sorry ladies, but orders are orders." Suddenly, every single soldier that accompanied the three females turned on them, surrounding them and aiming their weapons. Virgilia heard the guns click, and felt a sharp pain in her neck. But she wasn't dead, or bleeding for the matter. She reached back to her neck, and picked out a large needle. The other two women had needles in their necks too, and within the next 3 seconds they had all fallen to the ground. "Pick em up boys, and don't do anything to them."

※※※※※

We came to a forest entrance, this time full of bamboo trees. I was getting tired of fauna. Yuki moved inside the forest, and we followed suit. The damned trees were sharp, they tore into our flesh, but left our clothing alone. I peeked behind me, and I saw Reina moving unscathed. As were all the females, all of them were moving unharmed by the trees, whereas me, Ryan, Marlou, and Kwan were being torn apart by the trees. "What in heck is with these sexist trees..."

Yuki heard my complaint, and took her time explaining in a somewhat guilty voice. "Weill, you see, remember how I said that where I was consisted of only girls? Well, they don't like guys very much. These trees were designed, or enchanted, I dunno, but they punish guys who try and get in. to be honest, you guys have some serious balls to be this far. Most guys turn back after the first couple of steps."

Marlou asked, "So this is their security system?"

"Mhm."

"I wonder what their army is like..."

Yuki continued her explanation. "Actually, if they see you guys, they'll take you to their empress and she'll probably want you killed. The only way that you can stay alive is if we give one hell of an argument that persuades that you're useful."

I asked, "Does this count as argument?" I lifted my rail gun, then put it back down chuckling.

"Not funny! There are HUNDREDS of their warriors, and quite frankly, they're tougher than you guys."

We males shared a feeling I know as Bleck, and Ryan said, "Well force is out of the question, diplomacy is risky, any other way?"

"Probably not. Now shush, we're getting close." We followed Yuki closely, guys now bleeding from numerous cuts and holding our weapons tight. "Okay, listen up, this is what we're doing. I assume you guys all have your girlfriends or whatever, so guys, stay with them. Girls, hold on to them. The patrols won't attack them so long as they think you have use for them. Make them think that they're your workers or something. Guys, suck it up for now and just play along. Please?" We all groaned and complained about her plan ,but we all knew that it was better than death.

Yuki went first, followed by me and Reina, then Kaelynn and Marlou, then Jamie, Kwan,, Ryan, and Jenny all at once. The second that someone realized that there were 4 males in their vicinity, a shriek went through the air. Like a bunch of ninjas, a dozen tightly clothed women appeared behind, in front of, to the left, and to the right of us. One of them said, "Give zem to us! Ve vill not hurt jou. Unlez jou do not comply."

Yuki stepped towards her defensively. The guard was only slightly taller than her, and honestly much less pretty sounding. "Listen up, these guys are our workers, Comprendes? So leave it. We're seeing the queen to find out where she wants them."

"Zen put these on zhem." the guard handed her 4 sashes, one for each male. "Blindfold zem. Ve do not vant our queen to be tainted by zeir eyes."

Like a switch was pulled, all 12 guards disappeared into the shadows, leaving the rest of the female population to stare. Yuki whispered to us, "Come on, act!"

Reina immediately slapped me and dragged me forward. "Hurry up!" If she felt sorry, she didn't show it at all. I'm sure they all enjoyed it. I had no idea where we were going, so the scenery was nothing to me. Reina leaned close to me and whispered apologetically. "I'm sorry Bon Qui Qui, we're almost there. Just up the stairs." then she went back to evil mistress. "UP THE STAIRS MORON."

I made a mistake of trying to say something. "Well I can't se-" I blow to my stomach ended my sentence prematurely.

A rough female voice said, "NO TALKING UNLESS SAID OTHERWISE." Unable to fight back, I nodded and tried to walk up the stairs. Let me tell you, walking up stairs without seeing the steps, is hard. I must have fallen a thousand times on my ascent to hell.

When Yuki said that we were finally at the empress' room, a sigh of relief ran through the guys. We still knew not to talk, so we contented ourselves by relaxing. For 2 and a half seconds. Quickly, I felt 2 hands grab me tie my limbs together. I heard the same being done to the other 3, and our first instinct was to fight back. I reached for my rail gun, only to find that it was missing. Without thinking, I sprang up in unadulterated fury. "WHERE IS MY GUN?" The bonds weren't very tight yet, so I was able to free myself from them and remove the blindfold. The room was... surprising to say the least. It was completely bamboo. I now officially hated plants. The room was lit by a dimming sun, and there were some torches burning in their holders. I looked around at the furniture, people, anything that was a factor in a fight. In the biggest bamboo chair sat the empress. Undoubtedly. I looked around for more factors, but was stopped short when I saw the guards. They were all tall, slim, very fit women. Dressed in hand sewn, formfitting clothes, they looked like they would give even Marlou a challenge, and there were 18 of them. I gave up then and there, knowing that I couldn't win without my beloved rail gun. I looked back at the empress, she looked surprisingly young for a ruler. Again, she had a slim frame, her lack of height was replaced by supreme beauty, unheld by the other females. Her face showed signs of stress, and Chinese descent. Chuck, the inner pervert, thought, 'Check out her rack...' I looked down a bit, and thought back, 'Or lack thereof...'

The empress looked at me, then to my friends, then to the females. At her side was the same girl that threw me in the water. the empress said, surprisingly calm, "Whose worker is this?"

The girl to the empress' side brought out a digital tablet, seeming out of place in the surroundings. She scrolled through the list, then said, "Miss, there isnt any one with his descrption." She turned to me. "What's your name sweetie?"

The empress suddenly back handed her, following up with a harsh scolding. "Idiot! You do NOT treat males with respect! Rephrase your question!"

The girl reeled back from the impact force of the hand, coming back up holding the reddened cheek. I couldn't read people well, but it was clear to me that she wasn't like the other dominant girls. She didn't like the cruelty that was given to us, but she was forced to. "Uhmm... What's your name mutt?"

The empress giggled at her, then I answered the girl's question. "Miguel. Rikuma. May I ask yours?"

A guard tried to hit me, but it was blocked by Kaelynn. I looked at the other 3 of our group, who were feverishly untying the bonds that restrained the three other guys. The empress' assistant said, "I'm Camille, assistant to the empress. And commandress of our armed forces."

The empress stood up, "Yes, and an overly kind one at that. Guards, take the boys to the work areas. escort the ladies to their living areas."

The guards stepped in, but Jamie said, "Hey, don't touch them."

Reina confronted the taller empress. "Listen here, I don't know how things are run here, but our group is 4 guys, 4 girls. try and remove one, 7 come back for them."

Reina and the empress stared at each other for 3 minutes, then the latter decided, "Very well then. Since you all seem so close with one another, ALL OF YOU GO WITH THE WORKERS!"

All the guards advanced on us, and would've thrown us to slave work if Camille didn't abuse her command. "GUARDS! " The much taller women stopped suddenly. "Put them down! GENTLY. " We were lowered to the ground. "Now get back to your positions!" They went back. "And STAY." They didn't move.

In her seat, the empress was panicking. "Camille! What is anarchy! How dare y-"

She stopped short due to a burning hole in her chair. I put my rail gun down, and let Yuki and Camille do the rest. now that I saw them together, I really considered the fact they could be twins. Exact same body, hair, they even moved the same way. The only thing that differentiated the two would be the scars on Camille's face, and the slightly more... luscious lips on Yuki. 'So who's hotter? HEHHH.'

Camille said, "I got tired of the way you run things. I don't like how you treat the guys! Come on, really? We're made to be with each other! Look at these guys," She paused to point at us, then continued, "4 guys, 4 girls, no ruler. Now get off the seat and Lemme run this fiasco."

The empress remained quiet, then smiled evilly. She grabbed Yuki and kicked Camille away from her, then grabbed a torch and held it close to Yuki's head. "Not today." The empress looked at us with furious eyes. "Now, what should we do with you. Send you to the work area? Have you killed? Be my servants until you die of exhaustion? Or, I could just kill Yuki here and let you go. Your choice." She moved the torch closer, the flames seeming to reach for Yuki's hair.

Unsure what to do, I looked at Camille, then Reina, then my rail gun, then back to Empress. Going with my gut instinct, I dropped my gun and raised my hands in defeat. "Fine. You win this one. Do what you want. We'll be your servants. Or we'll do the work thing. Just don't kill us."

Triumphantly throwing Yuki back to us, she instructed the guards to take all of us to the work area. This time there was no rebellion.

※※※※※


	16. Surroundings

OKAY FINALLY! CHAPTER 16 IS UP! Sorry guys, I've been a bit busy. Among the distractions, are my friends, who are consistently inviting me to hang out with them, my dad, who consistently denies permission to go. Therefore putting me out of the mood to do anything TT^TT Anyways, there's also my summer job, 3 day vacations, and my other stories. Honestly, I don't think that I've done the best job with either one. There's one of them on FanFiction as well, and another on FictionPress. Feel free to read them if you want to. Reviews are cool to. Jussayin. Final note, does anyone know if I can post this as an original story? I've thought about it, and the way I see it, technically this could be an original story as much as it is a fanfiction. So if anyone wants to drop a word about it, just PM me or review. I read them all. Let's see anything else I'm missing… nope. I don't believe so.

Highschool of the Dead Outbreak In America

Chapter 16

Surroundings

At the camp where we were forced to work, we found scores of men, old and young, strong and weak. Camille, who had rarely been around males, gagged at the stench they emitted. "Blehh. Do all guys stink this much?" Our female guards escorted us into a tent, just large enough for all 10 of us, with one hammock each person.

One guard said, "You will remain here until the empress decides something. Working is not required from the girls, but the boys will have to toil from 6 to 6. There is a 30 minute break in-between for lunch. ANY QUESTIONS!"

We just remained quiet. She scoffed and walked out of the tent, leaving us to our 'private' tent. Kaelynn kicked a pole holding up the tent and growled, "DAMNIT!" Marlou stood to grab het, but she was still mad. "HOW did we get into this mess!"

Marlou argued, "What're you mad about! YOU don't have to work for 12 damn hours!"

"WELL I'M MAD BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO WORK!" The tent suddenly seemed to become still when she said that. Even the shadows of people listening outside stopped moving. "I don't want to be here. I really don't. But I don't think she'll let us just walk out of here."

Outside, some commotion started as the beginnings of a plan cooked up. "SHUT UP OUT THERE." Marlou shouted.

It got quiet. Yuki commented, "Well, we'll need a plan to get out. Anyone have one?"

I looked at what we had. 4 males with no weapons in a city of sexist female ninjas, 5 females that are frowned upon, and the former assistant to the empress. "Camille, do you think that the soldiers would mistake Yuki for you?"

They looked at each other and Yuki said, "I think so. I'm pretty sure I could be her. Why?"

"Planning."

※※※※※

Virgilia, Cameron, and Sarah found themselves tied to wall in a dimly lit room by means of metal chains. Cameron was still unconscious from, and Virgilia was still waking up, but Sarah was already trying to escape. "Nghh LET ME OUT OF HERE!" She struggled against her chains, making a loud screechy noise.

Virgilia woke up to the sound and said, "Sarah? Where are we?"

"Do I LOOK like I know?" She continued trying to break free of her bonds when a door opened.

5 people entered the room entered the room, 4 of them very well formed females with a really big gun. The 5th was a large man, who was easily identified as the godfather. The four women aimed their weapons at the prisoners, and the godfather commanded, "Put them down. We won't get much if they're scared." As commanded the women put their guns down, fingers still on the trigger. "Good. Now. Virgilia..." He walked up towards my former guard. "Tell me, why is it that you are so attached to the children?"

Virgilia spit in his face then hissed, "Shut the hell up old man."

He wiped his face and tried again. "I'll ask again. Why are you attached to them? They never did anything for you did they?"

Cameron was now waking up, and Sarah said, "Well not to you. But us being who we are, we just grew close to them."

The godfather turned his head to her. "Sarah, if I remember correctly, you were an enemy of ours before. So I don't think you were ever THAT attached to them. The only 'connections' you had with them was on the battlefield. Shooting each other." Sarah remained silent, which drew godfather's attention back to Virgilia "So you still haven't answered my question. I guess we can go on to the real purpose of me being here."

He motioned to one of the guards, who walked out of the room. She reentered carrying a strange device shaped like a pair of headphones. Godfather told her something, and then she placed it on Virgilia's head tightly. "THE HELL DOES THIS DO?" Without a word, the godfather and the guard looked at each other and nodded. A slight humming noise emanated from the headset. But Virgilia's screams drowned them out. "NYAAAUUUGGGHHHH!"

The guards and prisoners winced at the cries of pain, but the godfather stayed stoic the entire time. "NOW ANSWER ME!"

"WHY WOULD YOU NEED TO KNOW?" The godfather sighed deeply. He motioned to two guards to bring him something and another two to start removing the prisoner's clothing. "WHAT the hell are you doing?"

After one final sigh, the godfather said, "I hoped it wouldn't have to come to this. I didn't want to break you, but looks like I'll have to. Might as well have some pleasure while I'm at It." the guards returned with a massive rubber tube in hand. "I hope it isn't your first time."

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

At the work camp, the males were taken out by a burly man, heavily scarred from working. He introduced himself as Phil; he was a big man, the kind that could rip a car in half. With his fingers. But he also radiated an aura of safety, kind of like being trapped in a corner by a bear, but you have an impenetrable shield around you. "Alright boys, who's the top two physically strongest here?" We pushed Marlou and Kwan forward. "Okay. You two are gonna work the mines. It's simple; all you need to do is take the pick and swing. Follow Eugene here, he'll get you to the mines.

When they were gone, Ryan and I looked at the Phil and Ryan asked, "So what do we do?"

"Okay. Since you two were voted as the weaker of the 4, you'll be doing some of the more strenuous work. We need more muscle on you guys for the upcoming... never mind. So anyways, have you guys ever gone rock climbing?"

I said, "I have!"

"Without the rope?"

"Uhh..."

He laughed and patted me on the back, but because of his size it felt like a sledgehammer. "I'm joking, we aren't going rock climbing. Here, follow me. We're going to some different mines."

Ryan asked, "Really quick, is everything around here mining?"

"Ehh, pretty much. Some of them are easier because of the type we're mining, but it's mining nonetheless." Our 60 minute walk to the mine was actually pretty easy. If it weren't for all the damned plants. It wasn't that they were cutting into our skin, but they harbored so many little bugs that they got annoying. By the time we were at the mines, I was pretty sick of green things. To my dismay, the entirety of the inside of the cave was filled with moss and various plants. Phil said, "Well, here we are."

"Where's our tools?"

"Oh, for these ones we use our hands. The rocks come out easy, but you just need to have a good eye for them."

I groaned, already dreading the task at hand. "Ugh."

"Oh be quiet. The hard part is actually getting the rocks to the top." At the mouth of the entrance, it was easy to see what he meant. The cave at the bottom was incredibly far down, and the descent was fairly steep. It wasn't steep enough to require a lift, but it was steep enough to make walking up hard.

"This. Will. Be. Hell."

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

"Well, Camille you know this place better than any of us. Are there any escapes from here?" The girls were in the tent, trying to find a way to get out of the building. Jamie was pacing back and forth, wishing she had her weapons. Speaking of which, "Anyone know where they went?"

Reina said, "Remember, they took our stuff along with the guys', the only thing they didn't take... nah they took everything."

Kaelynn said, "So we lost a rifle, a rail gun, 2 pairs of claws, that crossbow, sword thingy, and 2 swords, no wait, FOUR swords."

Yuki looked up with guilty eyes. "They didn't take eeeverything." She reached into her pants and pulled out a collapsible pistol, and in her shoes were the ammo clips. "They didn't check me. They checked Camille over there."

She pointed at Camille, who smiled slyly. "It's a thing we used to do."

Jamie and Jenny looked at them as well as Kaelynn. Reina asked, "Hold up. USED to? Really quick, explain what you two are to each other. I'm confused and don't wanna assume you two are-"

"Twins?" Camille and Yuki said in unison. Camille continued, "Yea. We are twins. The day of that outbreak, when Yuki was at the store, I was with my friends on a field trip."

Yuki questioned, "Damn you still remember?"

"Mhm. Anyways, for the next... LONG time, we had no idea where the other one was. So while she was travelling with you guys, I was found by this group. Ever since then I've been working with them. Eventually. I was second in command. But I think I've kind of given up that position now haven't I?" She shrugged and looked up at the roof of the ceiling.

Yuki continued the explanation. "Remember that first big zombie we fought together? How you guys lost me and Miguel kinda looked all panicky? Camille and some others came by and snatched me in the carnage. They tried to grab you guys, but the USO were already there." She turned to Reina, with a look of partial disgust and gratitude, and asked, "It's been three years since that day hasn't it?" Reina nodded. "Three years... a lot of things change in 3 years. Looks like he's fallen for you hasn't he?"

"M-Miguel?" Yuki nodded at her. "Yea... I guess so."

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\/

"Marlou?"

"Yea?"

"Remind me never to be the second strongest guy ever again. I HATE PICKING AT ROCKS."

Kwan and Marlou were sweating profusely picking at rocks with picks. Marlou wiped off his sweat and said, "Oh come ON Kwan. It isn't that tough to pick at rocks!"

Eugene, their mentor for now, passed by them and asked, "HOW WE DOIN HERE BOYS?" He was a short man, with disproportionally massive limbs. Though kind, he had a tendency to be a bit rough. He gave each of them a slap on the back, causing Kwan to stumble over his pick, then over a rock, then onto his face."You alright there Kwally? You can take a break if ya want."

Kwan immediately sat down and watched Marlou work. Marlou kept swinging at an unusually large rock that refused to break apart. "Hey, Kwan lemme see your pick?"

"That's what she said." Kwan handed him the pick with the comment, then Marlou held both tools. "Don't hit me with those."

Instead of impaling the metal through Kwan's skull, he started swinging like a madman at the rock. "WILL. YOU. FLIPPING. BREAK!" He lifted both tools and swung downwards, with enough force to break the rock in literally two halves. "FINALLY!" The harder exterior of the rock turned out to hide a very large collection of red crystals.

Kwan jumped up at the sight of the rocks. "DAAAAAAAMN THATS A LOT." His shout drew the attention of quite a few laborers.

Eugene walked to them and asked, "What's all the mess about?" Marlou and Kwan pointed at the crystals. "Oh wow. That's quite the minerals you got there. AND your first day too!" It was obvious that he was jealous and happy for them, and he continued, "Well, load it into the truck and we'll send it to the refinery."

Marlou and Kwan tried to lift the broken part of the rock, only to find it was far too heavy for them. Their short mentor tried helping, and it still wouldn't budge. In the end, it took 5 additional men to move it all the way to the truck, which wouldn't move with the burden of the big rock and all the other loads. When they had unloaded the smaller cargo, the truck finally started to move, and all the workers started to head back to the mines. One worker told Kwan, "That is THE heaviest rock I've ever seen."

By the end of the day, Marlou and Kwan had finished their work quota and started to head back to the tent. "You think we get a shower?"

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/

At our more green mining area, our objective was to move the crystals found by the miners. Infinitely harder than it sounds. Most of the time, the rocks took 2 of the more experienced men to lift. Ryan and I, being as physically incapable we were, couldn't lift the same load. But we were a bit smarter. "Oiii Miggle, gimme that rope there?"

I handed him the rope and looked at our creation. "You sure it'll work? I mean, these are HEAVY rocks."

"Well this is designed to handle the weight." In honesty, most of our day was spent making this thing. We took a bunch of wood, nails, and rope to construct a basic pulley. "Go down there and tie this to the basket. Make sure it's tight."

I nodded and ran down to tie the required knot. Not wanting to run back up, I shouted, "ITS READY!" and had a few workers load their rocks into the massive basket.

He waited a moment before having some men pull the rope at the top. As was planned, the pulley works. This way, we didn't need to walk up and down to deliver the rocks. One dirt-darkened worker said to us, "YES! Finally! Walking that path is a pain in the ass, why don't ya'll take a break?"

We searched for Phil to ask his permission, and he said, "Hell, go back to your tent for all I care. We owe you that much."

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/

We four guys met up on the way, talking about the mines we were in. Marlou said, "Our place was pretty leveled out, but the rocks are a pain in the ass to get out. You guys?"

Ryan said, "Wow. Ours is the complete opposite. There's a steeeeep descent from the entry to where the rocks are. They're easy to take out, but they're fairly heavy and there's the incline for us to go up."

I commented, "But we're smart and made a pulley." We all laughed and talked, still exhausted. By the time we got back to the tent, it was pretty dark, getting incredibly cold, and we were practically dead. "Hah, at least look a little bit happy for the girls."

That didn't happen. We just stumbled into the tent, drawing the attention of the girls who were doing something. Yuki was on a hammock but jumped to greet us. "Miguel~!"

She gave me a tight hug and I flinched in pain. "Oii, that hurts you know..."

"Sorry." She stepped back with her hand behind her back. A cold breeze swept through the tent, drawing a slight shiver from everyone. "Sorry." She stepped back with her hand behind her back. A cold breeze swept through the tent, drawing a slight shiver from everyone. "It's cold..."

She stepped forward into me, probably expecting an embrace, but I was too tired to lift my arms that high. Instead, I said to her, "We could go to sleep; I think the blankets are pretty warm."

Yuki looked at me disappointingly, but nodded in agreement. Just as we started moving to get into bed, or hammock rather, Eugene and Phil walked into the tent. "Ey, you kids sleepin' already? Come! We've got dinner and a nice fire."

The males were out of the tent in 3 seconds.

/\\/\\\/\\/\\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

Virgilia and Sarah lay spread-eagle on the floor, nude and near-unconscious. The godfather stood over them, taking in the details of their body. "Have you learned your lesson yet Lambdadelta?" He gave her a kick to her crotch, eliciting a cry of pain and pleasure.

"Y-yes..." She tried to get up, but fell back on her rear halfway through. "Can I get my clothes back?"

She was thrown her clothes and told, "Get back to your room."

Godfather left, leaving the nude figures of Sarah and Virgilia alone. Cameron somehow managed to sleep through the entirety of the rape, and finally decided to wake up when the door slammed. "That sounded pretty hot."

"Shut up!" Virgilia dressed herself and Sarah, who was so unconscious it was similar to dead. Virgilia told Cameron, "Hey, help me carry her. She's heavy." sdfcgsdfgh

/\\/\\

"Here you go, enjoy!" one man wearing an apron was serving an odd looking soup to all the men of the camp.

When it came to us, he handed each one of us a wooden bowl and filled it up from a massive cauldron. I received mine, said my thanks and walked towards the calming fire. It contrasted the frigid air we stood in. I poked at my soup with a finger, wondering what was in it. "Don't worry. It won't kill you."

I turned to the voice of Yuki, but found Camille in her place. I smiled, took a seat on a stone, a bit behind the majority of people, and replied, "You sure? How would you know?"

She put the bowl to her lips and drank some of its contents. "Am I dead yet?" We laughed at her attempt of a joke then sat together on the rock. I looked around, looking for the rest of my group. Kaelynn, Jenny and Jamie were huddled together, trying to hide from the pedophilic glances from the older men. There were a few younger boys scattered around, but they weren't looking as far as we knew.

Marlou, Kwan, and Ryan were near their female companions, attempting to make the aura around them a bit less awkward. Around the fire, the men were talking about whatever came to mind, and some brought out a guitar and started some music. I asked Camille, "Have you seen Reina? And Yuki?"

She shook her head and answered, "Nope. Yuki seemed happy to see you when you got back. As did Reina."

I put on my curious face and asked, "Reina did? I didn't notice. Oh hey, are you and Yuki like-"

"Twins?" Camille said. The twin continued, "Yea. We are twins. The day of that outbreak, when Yuki was at the store, I was with my friends on a field trip."

"You remember that far back?"

"Mhm. Anyways, for the next... LONG time, we had no idea where the other one was. So while she was travelling with you guys, I was found by this group. Ever since then I've been working with them. Eventually. I was second in command. But I think I've kind of given up that position now haven't I?" She shrugged and looked up at the sky. She continued the explanation. "According to Yuki, you lost her in the first big zombie thing you fought together. That's when I snatched her. We honestly tried to get you guys, but the USO had already gotten there when we came back for you." She looked back down. "It's been three years since then right?"

"Yep. Wow. That does make a lot of sense."

"Mhm." She looked at her empty bowl hungrily. I noticed the look on her face and handed her my untouched bowl. "Oh, no. Please, I couldn't take this. I haven't done anything and you guys are doing all the work, I me-"

"Shut up and take it." I smirked at her reaction. "Look at me. Do you think I need the extra food? Besides, you're too skinny to be healthy." She grudgingly took the bowl and ate its contents, but left a little bit of it in the bowl. "So uhm... You ever had a boyfriend before?"

"..." She stayed quiet, but thrust the bowl in my direction again. "I'm not talking until you eat that." I took the bowl and she turned away. Seeing as it couldn't hurt to eat a bit, I emptied it and called her attention. "Good boy."

"What was that for exactly?"

"I wanted to see if you would drink it after I did."

"Uh-huh... anyways..."

She stood up and started to move to the front, but stopped. She sat down again and answered my question. "Nope. I'm not the kind to fall for anyone. Why you ask?"

I thought about it, wondering why that particular line came to mind. "No reason. Curious I guess. How about Yuki? Has she ever had one?"

"Yep." She looked a bit jealous as the word came out of her mouth, but the implication was killed when she added, "I'm not jealous though. Considering who the guy was."

"Who's that?"

"You wouldn't know."

I accepted the probable fact and we stayed in silence. That is until Marlou started singing. "OOOHHHHHHH FOR HE WAS A JOLLY GOOD FELOOWWW~"

Camille and I decided to drop our current conversation, taking up Marlou's idea of sing-screaming. Right after a 3 second song, I mumbled to myself, "Where are they..."

\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\

"Okay. We need to get this out of the way." Yuki and Reina were standing face to face in one of the spiky bamboo forests. Yuki said, "We're gonna have to decide on who gets Miguel."

The thought was awkward in and of itself. Two beautiful females arguing over me? Reina said, "Well... who's known him longer?"

"M- You, actually..."

"So do I win?"

"But who'd he fall for first!"

"Okay. 1 for 1. I know him better, 2 to 1."

"I- I- I've... Uhm..."

"That settles it. I win. BON QUI QUI'S MINE YOU *****!" Reina immediately covered her mouth. She uncovered it to say, "I'm sorry! That was an acci-"

Yuki's fist flew into Reina's face. "NO ONE. CALLS ME. THAT. EVER." The taller of the two pounced on the other, pinning her to the floor.

Reina's face was directly underneath Yuki's chest, bringing forth an awkward yet tense moment. A tear of pain escaped her eye, she was being crushed underneath the sudden weight. "Please... Get...Off..."

Yuki complied, getting off of Reina but kicking her in the ribs. "NGH-"

She was silenced again by another kick. Yuki stood over her and stated threateningly, "He's mine. I need him for later."

She smiled in a curious, yet evil, yet cute way, and dashed off into the forest, leaving the smaller girl on the floor. "Something is different about her. Definitely."

\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/

Reina returned to the camp fairly late. The fire was still burning, and had an audience of 4. Me and Jamie were awake, while Camille and Jenny were leaning on each other, asleep. Jamie and I sat 1 rock apart, just staring into the blaze. Reina stumbled and fell, making a slight noise behind us. "Hmm? Who's that?"

"M-me."

"Reina?" I stood from my chair and walked to her. "Reina! Where were you? You okay?" I helped her to her feet then escorted her to my rock. "Dang, you look pretty beaten up. What happened?"

She shivered and started to say "Yu- Yuki's insane. She isn't the same as before' She's changed." She looked directly into my eyes with a pleading soul. "She isn't the same girl you fell for. Please... listen to me..."

A cough escaped from her throat. Jamie said, "We need to get you inside. I'll wake up these two." She proceeded to do what she said, but got lazy and decided just to carry them inside.

Slowly, Reina and I made our way inside. There, everyone slept near their pair, trying to keep warm underneath their respective hammock. Reina and I took the last two that were unoccupied. Softly she said, "Goodnight Bon Qui Qui."

"Technically, good morning."

"You ass."

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/

In my mind, when I sleep, it's not total darkness. There's that place of limbo, where I see, assumedly, the dead and Chuck. But nowadays, I rarely see the cat unicorn thing. I've been socializing with the dead, and this time I felt like visiting my other conscience. "Chuuuuuuck?" I called out. "Hellooo? You around here buddy?"

A raspy voice echoed from somewhere. " 'M over here kid."

The same voice coughed loudly, but refused to reveal itself. "You alright? You sound a bit sick."

"Heh, you got that right. Since you stopped killin' random people. I been gettin' worse. Maria's been visiting, but late time she was he-" He was interrupted by a massive cough, then added on, "She hasn't been here."

"Oh damn..."

He chuckled, and reverted back to thinking his thoughts. 'It's alright. I won't die anytime soon. But killin' something could help ya know?' I nodded, understanding my friend's plight. 'Now lemme rest kid. Go swoon over the short chick or something.'

"Uh..."

'I'm playing with ya.'

Becoming confused, I wished Chuck good luck and went back to entertaining the dead that were around. I poked the breast of one of the younger spirits. They don't argue, nor do they talk, or feel, or look alive, or react.

\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\

"Where is he..." Yuki was pacing back and forth in of the mines. It was incredibly cold, but she wore an extra layer of clothing.

'I'm here. Ya miss me?'

"Finally. You're late Chuck."

'Well my pacifistic ***** of an owner wouldn't sleep.'

"Oh well! How's turning him on midget working out?"

In Yuki's mind, Chuck sighed. 'Its harder than it looks. They're both attached to each other like superglue to itself. And you? Getting her gone?'

"She's got the idea that I want him more. I don't think she'll give up though. I just gotta make sure that Miguel doesn't catch on to our plan."

'Tell me why exactly we need to get rid of midget? I don't see how her being gone helps. At all. I just want him killing again!'

"Well it'll be easier for him to get mad and kill someone if he doesn't have a girl to calm him down!"

'SHHH! QUIT BEING SO LOUD!' As her voice echoed around the mine, an eerie silence wrapped itself around the area. 'Now get outta here, I gotta get back to his head.'

In the softest of whispers, Yuki quickly said, "That's what she said..."

'Gah shut up. Hey, there's someone here.'

As true as he said it was, a solitary figure entered through the mine entrance. "Hello? Anyone in here?" Light from a candle lit up a small area of the cave. "Hellooo? I'm sure I heard someone in here, so come on out."

Yuki decided to ignore that request, and retreated further into the darkness of the cave. She directed a thought toward Chuck, 'Quick what do I do?' She didn't get a response. 'Chuck? Hello! Oh for ****'s sake.' She grabbed a random rock from the ground.

"Hey! I know you're in here! And you're a girl! Now what does a girl have to do in here alone at night?"

The rock hit his head. "I win." She ran out of the cave towards our tent, leaving the unconscious male on the ground.


	17. They Never Leave

Okay. I have written and posted the 17th chapter. I've tried writing the other stories, but I've been finding it hard to write them. ANYWHO, I don't have much to say. Other than I'm watching a 205 episode anime, so if i don't post for a loooong time, you can all blame that. And I can blame me. So, that is all. And if anyone could give me recommendations for a book to read, that would be nice. SO Here's chapter 17, read, review, do what you will.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\\

HOTD Outbreak In America

Chapter 17

They Never Leave

"OI WAKE UP!" As usual, a female guard entered our tent and woke up the males aggressively. Then she went to the females to awake them in a much more cordial manner. "Madams, please wake up now."

Jamie woke up first, instinctively grabbed for her scimitars, which weren't there. "Why do we have to wake up so early if we don't have to do anything?"

She rolled off the soreness in her shoulders, making a cracking sound that woke up Reina and Kaelynn. Kaelynn rubbed her eyes and Reina followed suit, both beauties looking adorable half awake. 'You still never stop checking them out do ya?' The voice in my head was back to talking. I responded, 'Hey, they're hot.' Aloud, I said, "Good morning Reina."

"Good morning Miggle." She then yawned and said, "Can we just go back to sleep?"

The guard, who was trying to wake up Camille, Yuki and Jenny, answered, "No. Today we have something to be done for you."

Every person who was awake looked up at the guard. Marlou growled, "What exactly do you mean?"

"You don't deserve to know, you adrenaline fueled barbarian." Marlou lashed out at the guard with force that would have brought her to the ground had Kwan and Ryan not stopped him. 'Ha! See? You don't deserve to know. Not that if you knew you would have the brains to do anything with it. None of the boys do."

As the words reached our ears, Kwan and Ryan let go of Marlou, who was even more pissed off than before. All three males emanated anger, then Kwan asked, "Miguel, can we kill her?"

"You can. But it wouldn't be good for us. We still have our uses for this place."

Everyone in the room suddenly turned their attention to me. The guard took this time to run to the opening, after reminding us that the males were due for work, and the females were to report to the main chambers. When she was out of earshot, Camille got up and grabbed my shoulders. "What'd you say that for? Now they'll be watching us even MORE closely!"

I slowly removed her hands from my shoulders, then softly explained myself. "That was the point. Okay, listen up. In the time we've been here, I came up with a 1.5 week long plan."

"That fast?" Jenny asked in disbelief.

"Yes. Anyways, I said that so they'll keep a tighter eye on us. If we make sure we do nothing abnormal within the time that they are watching us, there's a directly proportional length of time that they'll let their guard down. We use this time to infiltrate the base, get our weapons, and run. Simple right?"

Reina raised her hand. "Question?"

"Oy?"

"Is there a simpler way to put that?"

I mentally slapped myself for making it that complicated. "In laymann's terms, we stay good, they look away, we be bad, then we run away. Got it now?"

She nodded yes, then Ryan asked, "So, where's our stuff?"

This was the part that was recently made, so hard to deliver correctly. I thought then said, "This is where the girls shine. They said the girls would be going in base right?" Everyone acknowledged that. "Whatever it is you're doing, I need you 6 to find where they keep it. Ask them, try the empress. Camille, she knows you best."

Camille shook her head and raised her hands. "Nope! Nuh-uh! I can't just ASK that!"

Jamie spoke up, "He has a point. We can't really do much here with just a pistol. We'll need our weapons, and for that, we'll need to know where."

I added on, "Well, I never said you had to. I'm sure we can find another way. Just gimme another 3 weeks to plan."

She sighed in defeat, knowing that I was right. "Stupid guilt card... Fine. But Yuki's doing the same. No one will know the difference except us and mistress."

We looked at Yuki, who agreed without much hesitation. She said, "Well, just make sure we aren't seen together."

Everyone acknowledged the plan. Marlou did a quick recap of it, "So lie low, infiltrate, and RUN."

"Essentially. Now come on, let's get back to work before people start wondering.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/

(Inside the base...)

The plan was simple in theory. Whatever the girls were doing, they should be able to scout around a bit. The girls were taken into the main hall, where the empress herself greeted them. "Hello my darling angels! I'm dreadfully sorry about your punishment with the boys! And to make it up, I've decided to give each of you one thing!"

Our companions looked at each other in shock, no one expecting what was told. Jenny shyly asked, "One of ANYTHING?"

The empress grabbed her cheeks and elatedly answered, "Yes! One of AAAANYTHING you wish! Now, Jenny is it? You choose first."

"Uhm... Lemme think about this for a minute." She laughed embarrassingly, then said, "Let Jamie choose!"

She pushed Jamie and she said, "What? Well... how about everyone's weapons back?"

With a wave of her hand, 2 guards appeared from nowhere, and the empress stated, "I can grant this, but the males do not get them back. Just follow the guards, and they will escort you to the vault of weapons."

One guard went with Jamie to the vault, when Jenny made up her mind. "The guys have a bath or shower? They sweat a LOT during work, and they don't get to wash themselves. AT ALL."

This time with a frown, the empress agreed. "Fine. We'll set up showers for them. Camille dearest? What about you? And Yuki? I'm sure you two want something for yourselves, as do Reina and Kaelynn."

Camille was first to answer. "I want my position as second-in-command back." The empress raised an eyebrow. "I feel like I'm the only chick here that can handle it anyways."

Now with a smile, the empress cackled, "Yes! Finally! A wish for the girls! Granted!"

Yuki said, "Can WE have the weapons of the guys? We'll have them. Not the guys."

"Hm..." The empress turned around and thought about it.

Reina kicked Yuki then mouthed, "What are you thinking?"

Yuki motioned to stay quiet with an evil intent, and added on to her request, "To be honest, I just like Miguel's rail gun... but the other weapons are pretty cool too, so I figured we'd use them all."

The empress thought once more about the wish. "Very well. But, you cannot take them to the camps. Understand?"

"Yes... mistress."

Both evil females started laughing, and Reina's thoughts focused on what Yuki was thinking. 'Does she want to destroy the gun? Kill us with it? What HAPPENED to her?'

Kaelynn noticed Reina's facial expression, which was contorted into one of confusion. She nudged her and whispered, "Hey, you alright?"

Reina said, "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just... never mind. I'll tell you later."

"Now now, is there anything you two ladies would want? You haven't chosen yet!" The empress grabbed Kaelynn and Reina's shoulders tightly. "Anything at all?"

Reina pricked her fingers away then said, "Not as of now. Can we save them for later?"

Somewhat disappointed, the empress agreed. "Fine fine, we'll grant your wishes some other day. For now, take your weapons, and go on with your day."

Jamie had returned with the weapons in hand, or in the arms of the guard. There was a slight difference in her, as she was wielding a different kind of weapon. Her scimitars hung from her pants, and he held two tonfas. "I find new toy."

I figured I was rubbing off on Reina, because she didn't even try to suppress the next line. "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID." She, Jamie, and Jenny were the only ones that laughed at the joke. "Anyways... Where do we put the guys' weapons when we aren't using them?"

One of two guards said, "We will prepare a room for that. You are welcome to stay in that room for as long as you like."

Reina said, "Mkay. I think I'd prefer to stay with my friends though."

"They're all here, right beside you!"

"The guys I mean." Reina forced a cough to show the obviousness that was overlooked.

Without a word, the empress rolled her eyes and left. The guards told the girls to leave the room. "We will set up the weapons storage and have it ready by tomorrow. Feel free to leave and enter as you wish." The females left the room, and back to the camp, dropping the weapons off at the tent, then spending the rest of the day relaxing in the cl0th that was their residence.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

(At the mines...)

"I LOVE this pulley thing you guys made! We've been able to export 3 times as many rocks than before!" It was true, with the addition of the pulley system, the rocks were able to travel along the way much faster than manually carrying it. The men were relieved of the constant up and down trips, therefore allowing them to exert more energy in mining.

Out of curiosity, I asked the nearest worker, "Hey, we mine every day, what exactly are we mining _for_? And honestly," I looked around cautiously, "Why do you stay here?"

The man whirled around. "Well, the first answer, would be I don't know. We're told if we don't mine, we get punished. And after the Armando incident..."

I tried to feel sympathy, but nothing happened. "And the second reason?"

"Oh. Well. Cause, we can't fight them."

"The women?"

"No. The dead ones. We can't fight them. We have no weapons to fight with, and hand combat is suicide." I raised an eyebrow, considering the different view this man had. Instead of seeing it as a hell, he saw it as a haven, safe from the walking dead. He added, "That's why we stay. All we have to do is mine a bunch of rocks, and they do everything else. Honestly, they're nice. They give us food, water, shelter. They tend to our sick when it's really bad. Sure they're a bit pushy, but they keep us alive."

I admired the man's optimism, and his ability to find the reality of good in the illusion of bad. I told him, "You have a very good point there sir. Changes my view here." With that, we continued on with our jobs until the end of the day.

/\\/\\/\\/\\\/\

At the end of the day, our group all sat together at the nightly bonfire, with our dinners in hand. Mexican-style burritos were the meal, cooked by the heat of the fire. Yuki, Jenny, Jamie, Ryan, and Kwan were talking together, comparing their kills and arguing over the truth of them. Marlou, Kaelynn, Reina, and I ate in relative silence, most of the talking coming from me and Marlou. Kaelynn remembered Reina had something to say to her earlier. She nudged Reina then asked, "Hey, what were you talking about back there?"

Reina remembered immediately about her plight. "Oh, that thing. Well, first, keep it a secret okay? Especially Miguel, I don't think he'll want to believe me on the subject." Kaelynn agreed, so Reina started her story. "Okay, you remember the night we had the soup thing for dinner? Yuki told me to follow her, saying that she had a surprise for me. I followed her, then she pinned me against a wall, attacked me, then told me to..." Reina whispered in a barely audible voice, "She wants me stay away from Miguel. She said I would get in the way of her plan."

Kaelynn sat mouth agape when she had heard the news. "Wait, so she threatened you to stay away from him? Obsessive..."

"That's not the point! My point is, she isn't the same. I don't know why or how, but she's not the same Yuki that Miguel rescued from that flaming building." Reina turned to look at Yuki, eyes full of hate and worry.

Kaelynn asked suddenly, "Well, why do you think Miguel wouldn't believe you?"

Reina was taken aback by the question, completely unprepared to answer. Her reply was, "W-what?"

"I'm just saying, why wouldn't he take your side? He's been by your side for 3 years, and if he's got the brains he says he has, then he won't abandon you for some girl he lost for 3 years." Kaelynn finished her meal and stood. "Ima go to sleep now. If you need anything, talk to him about it."

She left, leaving Reina to herself. _She's right... he wouldn't leave me just for some random chick would he? I am so killing her later... figuratively._

Marlou and I were arguing over the effectiveness of units in a game that we used to play, before the entire ordeal. "I'm telling you, the tanks would be most effective up front. In the back, they can deal damage, but up front, they can take damage and deal it too."

I countered with, "Well, they can only take so much damage. Keep them in the back and let the marines take the damage. The medics can just heal them all and keep your investments safe."

Marlou began his retaliation when Reina stepped in. "You guys are such nerds."

I responded, "Well, it's part of us. Chuck's a nerd too."

'KID.'

'Oh alright.' I cleared my throat. "He said tanks should be at the back."

'There is no helping you...'

Marlou rage quit our conversation, leaving me and the miniature lady to ourselves. She took Marlou's spot and said, "I wonder how home is doing. Our room is so dusty... I can feel it." I merely smiled, knowing she had something else to ask. "Erm, Miguel?"

"Oui?"

"I have a question..."

I sat up, intent on listening. "What is it?"

"Well, I was just wondering... if, you know..."

She started drawing imaginary pictures on the ground with her feet. I encouraged her to continue, "I'm not part of the female mind thing. You gotta tell me the old-fashioned way. By voice."

She glared then sighed. "Well, I might as well ask. If Yuki were to say... I dunno, change into a psychopath who threatened to kill me because I stole you from her, would you believe me?"

"..." Even though she didn't say it, I understood what she was trying to say. The whole ordeal in the forest was explained to me, the plan, Yuki, even Chuck. I thought, 'Maybe this is the female telepathic system. Hm...'

"I'm sorry. I knew it was a stupid question. I asked it anyways. I'm... gonna sleep now. Goodnig-"

I whacked her on the head, uncaring whether it hurt. "Reina. For 3 years, I've been yours. For 3 years, I never once thought about her. You think, after finding her, I'd abandon you?" In an instant, I pulled her close and pecked her on the spot I struck her. "I'm sorry. You know I love you. I'm not letting anything change that. Not even the voice in my head. Right chuck?"

'Ahh shit. I guess I got some explaining to do.'

I punished chuck by visualizing him surrounded by hornets. "Come on Reina, let's go to sleep."

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

I waited until I was sure Reina had fallen asleep. By that time, everyone was fast asleep, except for me, and chuck. I got up and walked out, forcing Chuck to wake up. 'Oy, cat with a horn, wake up.' I kept walking until I was in one of the mines, where I started speaking out loud. "GET UP YOU CAT."

'I'm up! I'm up! Whatcha need?'

"You were plotting behind my back, how is that even possible? You're in my damn head!"

'Oh... that thing. Well, remember how I'm getting sick right?' I nodded, although no one was there to see it. 'Its cause you lost your killer thingy. I was created because of that, and I need that to continue existing. You haven't killed anything with that instinct in a while, so it's like keeping me underfed. Without the food, I starve and die.'

I understood his plight, but that didn't explain what I cared about. "And what does Reina have to do with this? And Yuki. What does she want?"

I was trying to stay calm, but under the circumstances, it's proving difficult. 'Okay. So I don't know exactly what she wants with Reina. But I do know, she just wants you back. That's all I know.'

I remained silent for a very long time, long enough for the nighttime creatures to come out. "Fine. I'll stop now. I need to check on Reina." I started my walk back to the tent, and immediately upon exiting the cave, the smell of smoke entered my nostrils. "Fire...?" I picked up my pace until I was running towards camp, and the sight that awaited me was, surprisingly, expected.


	18. Divide and Result

And…. Okay. Here's chapter 18 of my oldest story to date. :D Wow. It feels like I haven't updated in a I probably haven't, since there's another story I'm kind of working on, and another one that's floating around in my head. ANYWAISH, the following words contain…. I honestly forgot what's in this chapter. But , you can read and find out for yourself. I'm open to suggestions by the way. Read, review, do what you will witht his except steal it. Steal it, and Chuck will find you.

HOTD Outbreak in America

Chapter 18

Divide and Result

'Hey, kid?'

"Yes Chuck?"

'Why is it wherever we go, they always follow us?'

"I guess we're just that charismatic." We had gone to our camp, only to find everything in flames. Tents, food, people, even the zombies that had managed to find our living space. "At this point, honestly, I don't feel like fighting them." Chuck groaned loudly, which reminded me that I needed to kill to keep him alive. "Fine... well I'll need my weapons first. I am NOT fist fighting a zombie."

'Ya know I can right? Remember big guy?' Ah yes. The fight where we lost Yuki.

"True. You feel like fighting?"

'Hell yea! I haven't seen action since... the last movie you watched.'

"Well too bad. Go spying on people's memories to see where our stuff is!"

'Aye...' He disappeared to do the task at hand, leaving me in chaos. Around me, more and more zombies were swarming, along with a new breed of undead. Corrupted dogs ran loose, faster than their human counterparts, but slower than the living dog. The thing was basically the dog inside out, with missing pieces to it. The males were using everything at hand to drive them back, and it was going surprisingly well.

The female guards had it easy, with their ninja skills and weapons. I remembered my group, then went to search for them. I found them near our now-burned-down tent. "Hey!" I tried calling out to my comrades, but they were too busy trying to fend off a particularly large group of the walking dead. Luckily, the girls had their weapons with them, making the task of surviving much easier. The males had to improvise, being weaponless and all, with picks and whatever tools were lying around being used as temporary weaponry.

Kaelynn swung her jaded sword, neutralizing a zombie and defending herself. Jamie used her new tonfas to great effect, breaking 2 undead skulls in one swing. She looked over at Ryan, who was fighting with a rock. She loosened her old scimitars from her belt and tossed them both to Ryan. "Here! Use these!"

Ryan caught both of them, then handed one to Kwan, who blew a zombie back with a shovel. Ryan said to himself, "I fight better with one." He and Kwan then worked together to decapitate more zombies. Marlou continued to fight barehanded, hands bloodied from the innards of his victims. Ryan called out to him, "HEY! You okay there?"

An explosion cut off Marlou's answer, but it was obvious he was fine. Reina and Jenny were back to back, defending themselves and each other. Camille and Yuki proved their combat ability, as they fought like only twins could. Separately they were fine, but together they rained hell upon the enemy. I snapped back to my situation, which was weaponless but hidden. "Hmm… let's see…"

Chuck appeared in my mind again, harboring information on our weapons. 'Alright, kid, I found out where the weapons are. They're locked up in some room, so we either blow the door or find the key.'

"The first one sounds much easier. Lead the way!"

'Thought so. Head up into the base and take the first left.' I followed his instruction, avoiding all combat on the way there. 'Down this hall, last door on the right.' The building was quickly catching fire, so I started to run down the directed hall.

"Damnit! Chuck! What's the closest route to the weapons!"

'What am I? A navigation system?'

"To me, yes."

He sighed in my mind then said, 'Fair enough. Here's a shortcut, go the adjacent hallway, then bust a hole into this one.'

"Good idea actually." I went to the nearest hallway, then tried to break down the walls and doors. They didn't put up much of a challenge, as they were already weakened from the fire. Most of what I found was living quarters, abandoned as of the current situation. I ended up at a door with a key lock on it. /I probably should've looked for this kind first./ I tried to kick down the opposing door, but it was still holding strong despite the fire. "One way in then!" I literally ran headfirst into the door, breaking it down at the price of a sore head. "Ow... Oh well. I'm happy now." Just as I grabbed by beloved rail gun, and the other weapons, the room I was in collapsed, trapping me underneath a particularly heavy piece of material. Something hard and solid hit the back of my head with enough force to knock me unconscious, leaving me useless until otherwise.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

"To your left!" Reina warned Marlou of a corrupted dog jumping at him.

Marlou intercepted the dog with an improvised spear, then swapped out the stick with a shovel. He mercilessly kicked a zombie human into a zombie dog, and both were crushed by a falling piece of lumber. Even with the efficiency of our group, the males, and the females, the swarm of zombies was still too much to handle. Everyone, including children, fought against the swarm, but it was useless. Little by little they were pushed back, until they had their fists raised and weapons pointed. As it turns out, lady luck was on the living side, as Camille was able to find an escape from the inevitable. "Over there!" she pointed at a break in the swarm, which was enough to show an escape path, away from the female-dominant base and the undead. "We can escape through there if we hurry! The people here will buy us enough time to get out!"

It was obvious that it was probably the only chance there was of escape, seeing as everywhere was either someone dead, someone undead, fire, or someone dead or undead on fire. Even so, there was still some hesitancy. Marlou said, "We still don't have our original weapons!"

Reina added on, "And Miguel isn't here!"

Everyone looked around, finally realizing my absence. Camille disregarded the situation. "Oh well, he can find his own way out. For now, we gotta get out! I'm leaving, anyone that wants to, follow along." She ran away, followed closely by Yuki and Ryan.

Kwan and Jenny were next to follow, along with Marlou and Kaelynn. Jamie started to leave, but before doing so said something to Reina. "Don't worry. He'll be fine. I promise that we'll all see each other again."

She followed the rest of the group, leaving Reina to her decision. She looked at the sky, for she had no idea where I really was, then whispered, "You better be back Bon Qui Qui." Then she was gone.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

(5 miles away from the chaos...)

Camille was panting heavily, unlike the rest of the group, who was used to such physical punishment. "Okay... so... at least we're all alive. Right?"

Everyone sounded off their existence, looking around the open plains of wherever they were. Jenny said, "Uh, anyone know where we are?"

"Not... exactly." It was true. At their current location, there was nothing that was familiar to anyone. Other than dust, there was sand, and other than sand, there were rocks. "Well, it doesn't look like there's much to go by... so anyone got any ideas?"

Jamie said, "We could go back and check to see if there's anyone alive...?"

Camille said, "NO." Then continued, "There's most likely nobody alive there, so if we backtrack 5 miles we would just waste our time."

Reina whimpered hearing the words, as she knew I was probably included in that group of nobody being alive. Yuki heard her voice, and countered Camille's statement with, "well... if we go back, I could backtrack us to our oasis thing. In theory at least."

"That sounds good."

"Agreed."

"ITS A GOOD IDEA!" Everyone looked at Marlou. "Sooooorry."

Camille growled silently, but followed the already moving group. "I'm not running again!"

For the next 30 minutes, they were walking back the assumed path that they previously took. Something didn't feel right however. They were walking, but didn't recognize anything they passed by. Sure it was mostly dust, but there were a few spires of rock jutting out form the ground in peculiar formations. Kaelynn commented, "Uhh, anybody know where we're going? It doesn't seem like we're headed the right way..." she looked around once more, then stated, "Definitely not the right way."

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

All the times I regained consciousness, I hated it. It was so much easier being in a dream than in real life. But waking up pinned underneath something incredibly heavy, with your body feeling broken, and dirty on top of it all, definitely takes the cake as worst wake up ever. At least my rail gun was still in hand. I breathed my first breath upon waking up, but I found myself inhaling more smoke than air. I coughed violently, breaking something inside of me. I tried to say something, but it came out as a series of more coughs. Out of nowhere, a female voice said, "Hey! There's someone over here!" Quickly, I felt the weight lift from on top of me. With the little consciousness I had, I turned my eyes towards the voice I heard. She said, "Quick! Get him somewhere to lie down!" I was picked up, then placed on something relatively soft, compared to the ground at least.

I mumbled something, which was supposed to be a thank you, but it ended up knocking me out once more. When I regained woke up again, the world around me was still post-chaos. Ash rained from clouds of smoke, tiny remnants of fire jumping between ignited and doused. "Ngh..."

I gripped my rail gun, then tried to sit up, but was confronted by 2 things. One, was a fairly decent woman, at most 26. The other thing was pain. Jolts of pain travelled throughout my body, mostly from the lower rib area. The woman in front of me said, "Oh no! Please don't do that! You have 3 broken ribs and way too many bruises to be moving!"

She pushed me down slowly, with very gentle care. Seeing as I wouldn't be able to move, I said to her, "I see... who are you exactly?"

"Katrina Hyung-ja. Assistant medical advisor. And the only one that has any medical knowledge. I was the one that found you earlier."

"Miguel Rikuma." I extended my hand in greeting, which she accepted. "So... how long was I out?"

"Its indefinite. We only found you recently, so we're unsure of your status before then." She looked at my rail gun uneasily, like it was about to explode.

I didn't exactly blame her, it was aimed at her chest anyways. Just before my inner pervert began to stare, I aimed it downwards at the floor, changing the subject as well. "Where's the rest of my friends? Are they safe?"

She cast her eyes cast downwards, then solemnly said, "We have no idea where they went. I'm sorry." I remained silent for the moment. "B-but on the bright side, we know they're alive. We haven't found any of their bodies, so they're most likely alive!"

"I see." I sat up, ignoring the pain of my ribs. I winced, but went ahead and brought myself fully up. Looking around, almost everyone from the base had died. A mere 4 men, and 6 women were left unharmed. Only a few people were injured, as everyone else was dead. "We're all so..."

"Battered? Yea. So many good people... lost in one freak attack." A few tears escaped her eyes, which were rubbed off quickly. "Excuse me. I must check the other patients."

She stood up, but I grabbed her before she could leave. "Let me help."

"What?" I started standing up, against her wish. "Lie down! You'll just get worse if you move around!"

"Listen, Kat, one thing you should know, is that I'm an insane bastard. I'll be fine. Besides, you're not the only one that knows medical procedure. I know a few things."

Eventually, she stopped stopping me, instead assisting me get up. "You better not be pulling my leg here. Come on, we gotta feed the injured." We moved to an area, sealed off from the uninjured by tarp material. She stated" Well, here we are. These are all of the injured people. Just check if anything's broken, or if they're infected."

I moved to the left, and she took the right, and together we started the medical checkup which would end in disaster.

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

Marlou cried out, "UUUGGGHHH. WHERE IN THE NAME OF HELL ARE WE GOING!" The group had gotten lost, now entirely unaware of where they were.

Yuki felt ashamed, as it was her idea in the first place to try and back track. "I'm sorry... I didn't expect to get lost like this..."

"Of course not you useless piece of sh-" Marlou stopped himself from continuing his rant when he heard the noise of an earthquake. "Earthquake...?"

Most of the group started to panic the slightest bit, but Jamie, Kwan, and Marlou kept their cool. Jamie said, "I don't think that this is an earthquake... It's a little soft for it."

Kwan stated, "It could be the beginning of one, it might get stronger eventually." Suddenly, the earth split in two, thankfully far enough from the group to keep them all on one side. "Well there it is!"

"Hold on, this isn't like an earthquake. They almost never stop after this, they usually continue for a while. Notice the ground isn't moving at all?"

"True..."

Together, the friends moved closer towards the fissure, knowing full well that it was a bad idea. It proved to be so when the crack exploded, sending everything in the area flying, including the humans. Everyone was thrown far away from each other, landing with a hard thud and a few cracks. "SHIII-" Jenny and Jamie had both fractured an arm, and Marlou's leg was twisted at a disgusting angle everyone else was fairly unharmed, apart from some scratches and soreness. Kaelynn ran to Marlou, while the rest dispersed between Jenny and Jamie. Kaelynn said, "Are you okay?"

"The hell do you think? Help me up!" Kaelynn lifted Marlou's arm over her shoulder, which used her as support. He limped on one leg with her, and said, "Thanks."

Kaelynn nodded and walked over to Jenny and Jamie, who were walking on their own. Ryan and turned his outer shirt into a sling for both of them. Jenny hugged him with her good arm, but the moment was short-lived as something started to come out of the chasm within the break of the surface. "The hell is that!"

A mass of rotting humans and animals started climbing out of the crack by the thousands of thousands. There was absolutely no way for the group to survive. The same though went through everyone's mind, and they shared a look of extreme sorrow. The infected started running towards them, surrounding but not attacking just yet. They overlooked this, giving up before the battle started. Even at full power, and the power of the USO Vartolameo cruiser backing them, it would be impossible to survive. Hornets and Hawks began to fly out of the cavern, forming a half living cloud that blocked the sun. The one that lived thought the same things that this was the last time that they would see each other, but there was another voice that appeared in all of their minds. A deep, powerful, echoing voice resonated within their minds, blocking out any thought except that. "Hmhmmh... so you are the group that's been giving master so much trouble... I bet if I killed you now, I would be rewarded very nicely..."

Reina was on the verge of tears, but screamed, "Who are you!"

"Hmhmmh, Its not a good thing to scream at the man who holds your fate in his hands." He laughed in their minds again, and at the same time a shadow jumped out of the crack. In front of the sun, a human-like figure fell, from the sky, on top of a zombie dog, instantly killing the thing. As the horde parted in front of him to make a path, the seemingly male figure walked forward. Like powerful strides were accompanied by a lance, gleaming silver in the blazing sun. He came to a stop in front of Reina. Despite the control that he seemed to have over the undead, he was surprisingly... alive. His long face was accentuated by his height, and long majestic hair. "I am known as Masterbrood, though you may call me Mister for the time you are left alive."

"So you're gonna kill us?" Reina tensed, holding back her tears for the sake of not showing weakness.

She didn't try hard enough. Masterbrood knelt down to stroke her cheek, which she slapped away. "Feisty one... But no. Not yet. You may make good commanders... or slaves." he started walking in slow circles around the group, occasionally touching one of the members.

Marlou glared at him viciously, then cautiously asked, "So, you a zombie?" Masterbrood nodded. "Then why you look so alive?"

"Hmhmmh. that's because I was blessed by my creator to have maintained my human form. He appoints certain victims to command his massive army, and I was one of those." He ruffled Marlou's hair, much to his annoyance. He continued to circle the group, then in one swift and unseen movement snatched Kaelynn away from them. The Jamie tried reaching for her, but a zombie dog jumped in front of her path. The evil commander laughed and said, "Ah ah, no touchy. If you remember, I'm sort of in control here~"

He sniggered as Kaelynn tried to squirm away, without much result. His grip was like a boa constrictor, unwilling to let go of his victim. Kaelynn tried to hit him, and shouted, "Let me go!"

He gave her a sickening slap into her chest, which was both painful and just plain wrong. "Again, I am in control here. Without some serious help from god himself, there is no way that you can escape or fight your way out." Like god was listening in, there was the faint sound of allied planes and cruisers coming, engines blasted at full speed, and for a moment it looked like there was help arriving. That hope was nearly crushed when, with a wave of his hand not restricting Kaelynn, every single Hornet and Hawk flew in the direction of the noise. "Hmhmmh, looks like you actually tried and signal for help!"

He laughed, but the humans were confused. None of them had ever sent any form of help message, nor did they even know how to. In the far distance, the cloud of undead flyers was getting farther, without any signs of a fight. In the opposite direction however...

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

"Captain? Have the air scouts drawn the enemy away?"

"Yessir! We are clear to blow up everything down there!"

"Not everything. Our allies are still there, remember. Restrict the heavy laser cannons near the middle, where there's a small opening."

"Aye-aye." The current captain of a USO cruiser relayed a message to the fleet, 5 cruisers and 50 aircraft strong. "Alright! Here's the rules, kill everything, and keep the big gun away from our buddies. GOT IT!"

In the Vartolameo, Jon sent his own message. More effective than the previous, and all in only one word. "FIRE!"

/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\

At the survivor camp, the injured all basically had the same fate. They would all die eventually, if they hadn't already. Some of them spat blood while we were checking on them, others died as we did so. Katrina and I moved the already dead ones to join the pile of deceased. The night wasn't as dark as it truly was, but the ash floating around made everywhere seem much darker and colder than it truly was. And we had no source of fuel. I had earlier suggested that we burn the bodies of the dead, but it was frowned upon by everyone. The choice was most likely regretted now, as it was getting colder and colder with each passing second. The men huddled together in a sort of embrace, to share body heat, while the females' embrace was more secure. I didn't feel comfortable around any of the people except Katrina, so I was left freezing on my own. A few remnants of the chaos lived in the form of small fire, which seemed to put themselves out as I got to them. The movement generated enough heat for me to survive long enough to find a half-existent blanket, still being grasped by its previous owner. The little girl held fast to the blanket, therefore forcing me to rip its frozen and dead fingers off. I felt ashamed, stealing a blanket from a dead girl. I closed her eyes in a form of respect, and thanked her for the blanket. As I threw the cloth over me, a familiar voice said, "You're a deep guy Miguel. Thanking a deceased girl for her blankie."

I turned and saw Katrina shivering in the cold. "You cold? Here"

I tried giving her the borrowed blanket, but she rejected the offer. "I'm fine. I'm warm enough for now. More importantly, why are you here alone?"

I motioned to the blanket. "Keeping warm. I don't know anyone from the guys to huddle up with, and I don't think the girls would find it... tolerable if I were to join them."

"What do you mean? I'm sure we would let you join us! I mean, now that everything's all destroyed and the empress is gone..."

"She died?" I looked at her, somewhat shocked that the leader of the place was now gone.

Katrina nodded then said, "Yea. She became a zombie. I saw her get killed in person. Disturbing..."

"Mkay. Well, you'll be fine. We just have to work together. And move out eventually. There's no way we can survive here as of now." I walked past her, heading back towards the rest. "Come on, let's light a fire."

We found some flammable items and dead bodies, then lit them with a low powered burst from my rail gun. Slowly but surely, the flame built up and increased in size and heat until it was enough to make us sweat a little. The night was now as dark as ever, the only things we could see being whatever was illuminated by firelight. Katrina tried to start a conversation with, "So... do you really think we should go away from here?"

I nodded. "Yep. In all honesty, we had a plan to leave this place. The zombie thing was sort of a blessed curse. We technically got out, but at the price of... how many people lived here?"

"5,000."

"At the price of 5,000 lives. And Chuck" I looked at the sky, which was void of anything except a half moon.

"Chuck?"

"The voice inside my head. See, when I was younger, I had this impulsiveness to kill random people, so doctors shot me with a whole bunch o-"

My sentence was cut off when Katrina said, "Don't. Explain. I'll get a headache."

I nodded, then looked at the stars and their patterns, trying to recognize the constellations. To fill the silence that overtook both of us, I said the names out loud as I pointed at them "Orion, Taurus, Gemini, Elohel..."

"Elohel?"

I laughed and explained the false name that I had given a star pattern. "Yes, Elohel. Before we were here, my friend and I were stargazing on the roof of the place we lived in. we got bored of naming the ones that existed, so we ended up making our own. Even though Elohel was the only one..."

I ended up being quiet as I finished the sentence, prompting Katrina to say something. "Which was it?" Katrina scooted closer, so she could get a look at where I was going to point.

I obliged, pointing towards a hidden L, O, L in the sky. "Elohel. See how it sort of makes a LOL shape?"

We started laughing, a true laugh that neither experienced for quite a while. She said, "You guys are so stupid! But I guess you have some serious eyes, to be able to identify that particular shape of all things. Why not... Geeohoh?"

"Geeohoh... Goo?"

"Yep. Here!" She pointed slightly underneath Elohel, where something stood out to her as the form of Goo. "See it?"

"Honestly.. No. I don't." Then I came to a sudden realization. "WAIT A MINUTE!"

I jumped up, startling her due to the sudden reaction. "What is it!"

"Elohel, it can lead me home! If I follow those stars, I'll eventually end up where I was before!" My euphoria was obvious, even to her. "Now all I have to do is mark the direction, and get a good sleep. Where's my rail gun..." I searched for my rail gun, then using a series of low powered shots, I drew an arrow facing the imaginary constellation. 'There! Now I can sleep, and be gone tomorrow!"

While I was happy, Katrina was slightly disappointed. "So, you'll be gone forever now?"

"What?" I stopped dancing in my head for a minute to listen to her question.

"Well, you said you'll be gone right? You'll be leaving us? Me?"

"Wait. Aren't you going to come with me? I mean, the place I know is a hell of a lot better than here." She said nothing after that. I stood, as if there was somewhere for me to go, ending up sitting back down. "Well, it's your choice. I'm heading back if it kills me. At least I'll have the satisfaction of knowing I tried if I DO die. For now, goodnight."

I wrapped the blanket around me as much as I could, then got into a comfortable position to sleep in. Within a few minutes I was snoring. Katrina followed suit, the words of my offer lingering in her mind.


	19. Homecoming

Ooooooh my god. I spologize for not writing anything in so long. Actually, I HAVE written, its just I got a case of…. The f***its I guess. But on top of that, highschool's being mean and getting rid of any time I have to write. These bunch of chapters actually only took 4 weeks to write, but I never got to posting them. The case of the f***its. Anyways, here's my severely overdue set of 3 chapters, I do hope you'll accept my apology. (Not that I have many readers to read this.)

Again, as per norm, read, review, do what you wish, just don't steal. Reviewing: Makes authors happy. Doesn't take much time. Doesn't require an account. Just saying.

HIghschool of The Dead Outbreak In America

Chapter 19

The Undying Mercs

"Migueeeelll~ Miguuueeelllll~" A sweet voice, familiar, was calling out to me. My eyes opened slowly to a dim room. Well, more like a dim box. There was nothing inside the place, just a single light suspended from a ceiling. "Miguel, wake up, we have things to do."

"Okay... one minute..." I started getting up, but found chains attached to my arms and legs. "Uh, whoever you are, what's this doing?"

"Keeping you from running... of course. Everyone tries to run away..."

At this point, I started getting a bit worried. I honestly should've been more worried earlier, but the voice was enticing. Wait... where was the voice coming from? "HEY, LEMME OUTTA HERE!" I started struggling against the chains, which sadly did not break.

A fairly tall, skinny figure of a woman started to appear out of the shadows, carrying something long, and probably lethal. "Don't struggle... it'll make the mess more than it needs to be..."

She raised her weapon like a spear, readying herself for a lunge. "Hey, hey WAIT!"

"Goodbye." She jumped, and for a split-second, Yuki's (or Camille's) face appeared on the body.

My eyes opened to a bright sun, and a shadow transcending over me, "SHIT!"

I instinctively brought both of my legs up, and placed them underneath the body of whatever obstruction was on top of me. Using more force than was felt necessary, I pushed against the weight, propelling it upwards and allowing me to jump up and fight back. "Ouch!"

Wait. Ouch? I took a closer look at what it was that I shoved out of my way, and found Katrina lying on the ground, face up. "KATRINA?" Upon realizing that I had launched my older buddy into the sky, I dashed over her and hefted her to her feet. "Crap! Are you okay! Okay, stupid question..."

She giggled, and said, "I'm fine, but was the launching necessary? I'm only a girl~" she rubbed her gut in the area that I slammed my feet down on her, then added, "Okay. That hurt. Kinda." A guilty look crossed my face, so I turned away. She asked, "Bad dream? You were thrashing around quite a bit, responding to mental images. And you started sweating, which implies subconscious fear."

"In English?"

"You had a nightmare."

"Ah. Oh. Well. Yea. I did. But that's unimportant right now. Right now, I gotta get moving." I grabbed my rail gun, which still managed to be near me. _Now that I think about it, isn't a rail gun supposed to fire a projectile at crazy fast speeds? AGH NOT NOW_. "Well, I'll be off. Bye! Have fun uh... doing whatever. Unless you'd like to join me."

Her face froze. "J-join you? Where? What if we get lost? What if we die? What if they come and eat us? What happens if bad guys show up?"

She kept rambling on about the possibilities of what could possibly happen. "HEY!" She shut up quickly. "It's a yes or no question. Do you want to join or not?" She looked as if she was about to say something, but I went ahead and said, "Ya know what? Never mind. Don't say anything. Just follow me if it's a yes." And with that I started walking, 20 seconds ahead of Katrina.

* * *

"Izquierda! Fire your main cannons into these coordinates!"

"Yessir! Firing at designated coordinates!"

"Fang and Europa squads, fly cover for the bombers! They're started to hit back!"

"WE'RE TRYING TO, BUT HALF OF EUROPA'S GONE AND FANG'S OUT OF MISSILES!"

"This is Jupiter squad; I'll get you guys covered. My squad's all gone anyways."

The sky was chaos. The team that was sent to distract the majority of the air forces was shot down by the overwhelming number of flying undead, which had come back to wreak havoc on the human air forces. Not even with the combined might of 4 cruisers could the humans handle all of them. The zombies on the ground found themselves at a loss, seeing as they were at the mercy of the air bombardment, but Masterbrood had survived, and a good portion of the ground zombies did as well. The half-human, half-zombie was seething with anger, so much in fact that he had nearly killed himself whilst summoning yet another creature from the rip in the earth.

"Shit! They're dropped off Alien-classes into the Kuusitoista! They're gonna be overrun!"

On the Vartolameo, Jon was cursing his luck, and his decision. The Godfather had been against this, saying that they could find plenty of replacements with fewer losses. But Jon had decided otherwise, saying that there was something special about our group. Now it seems that his choice would cost him dearly. He gave an order to the gunners on the ship, who started to accurately pick off the Alien-classes that were on the Kuusitoista. He muttered, "Now how do we get rid of _that_." He looked at one of the monitors, right at the heart of the air swarm. Using the main cannons on each of the ship was obvious, but it would be just as clear to the enemy what they were planning, giving them time to avoid it.

On the ground, the young survivors and friends were taking cover behind whatever was found. Kaelynn and Reina were hiding behind pillars of rock, while the others were scattered around, hiding behind rocks, and shielding themselves from the hail of projectiles. All of the undead forces were more preoccupied with the air force, leaving the group of kids fairly safe. Reina, after 3 years, still held the leader position, and started barking orders to her troops. "Kaelynn! Get over to Ryan! RYAN! I need you to shoot the shit out of 'Masterbrood'!"

Kaelynn nodded, dashing to Ryan and narrowly missing a chuck of rock. She said, "You think you can snipe him with that there gun of yours?"

"WHAT GUN ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT."

"..." They had completely forgotten. None of the males had their weapons, and the only long range weapon that the females had was an out-of-ammo shotgun that Jenny had picked up. Kaelynn screamed at Reina, "There's nothing to shoot him with! We'll have to get him up close if we want to stop this!"

Reina swore to herself. The thought had come to mind, but she had hoped that it wouldn't have to be done. Too bad a gun wouldn't drop out of the sky and land in their hands. She waited... nothing fell. She looked at the array of weapons she had in her squad. 2 tonfas, 2 scimitars, a sword, and the claws that Reina wore. Looks like melee combat it is. She nodded at Kaelynn, who understood what she meant. "Alright, here's the plan! Marlou, Camille, Yuki, you'll be defensive squad, so cover me! Ryan, Kaelynn, Jamie, Kwan, you'll run distraction for us! Chase off anything that defensive squad can't kill!"

Marlou dodged a zombie fragment then shouted, "And you?"

"I'll be decapitating Ol' Masterbroody. I just need to get close enough to him, and I'll kill him! Oh, also, avoid getting killed. I need you all. And, it would be nice if we were all alive when Miguel gets back."

She finished her debriefing, and then the males started being... males. "WAHOO!" Instead of following Reina's plan, they had gone off and started hacking at whatever they could grab with whatever was on hand. Kwan and Ryan shared the both of Jamie's older scimitars, while Marlou went with rocks, which happened to be sharp enough to gouge something to death. He called out without looking back, "This is your new distraction team! NOW GET GOING!"

Kaelynn slapped Reina on the back, who started running top speed towards the undead commander. The rest of the females followed suit, but Jamie joined the impromptu distraction squad.

* * *

"Hey Katrina?"

"Yea?"

"You ever get that feeling that someone you know just made a decision that's probably really stupid?"

"Hmm... Not in a while. Why?"

"I just got that feeling. It wasn't comforting." Katrina and I had been walking for an excess of 3 hours, climbing the terrain which gradually got more and more abstract as we progressed. As of now, we were descending into a cavern, which seemed unavoidable on either side. I led the way, jumping onto a rock which held fast against my weight. "It's safe! Come on!"

She cautiously leaped onto the same rock, keeping balance. "How much longer till we get there?"

"I'm not stopping until I get home. We can rest once we're out of this cavern." We continued walking and jumping, and the ground eventually settled into an inclined walk ahead, with unimaginable heights of rock on either side of us. The gap was enough for us to walk side-by-side, but she still remained behind me. The grip on my rail gun was as tight as ever. I haven't had to shoot at anything besides some obstructions, and I was hoping it would stay that way. Not that much of my hopes were ever successful. The next 100 or so minutes of slow walking were uneventful, until a Hornet literally fell from the sky. "MOVE!" Thinking it was still alive, I shot it with a 3 shot burst from my rail gun. Most of my usage with it was multitudes of low-powered shots, like a normal assault rifle.

Katrina rolled to the right, stopping herself on the wall, while I jumped backwards. 2 of 3 shots impacted the beast, which fell to the ground right side first. I kept my gun aimed at it, then moved closer to make sure it was dead. Katrina walked up to it as well, but noticed something I had missed. "Is your gun supposed to do this much damage?"

"Yea. It can kill one of these things in a few shots."

"No, I meant..." She rolled the thing onto its belly, revealing a huge area of charred flesh, and more structural damage than my gun should have caused. "This."

"That... is new." I looked at the damage, which was clearly caused by something bigger than the weapon in my hand. The first thing that came to mind was the Vartolameo's AA laser banks, but Hornets attack in such numbers that it would've had to have a couple of fighter jets flying with it. So it could've been a missile wound... wait. Missile wound, Hornets dropping from the sky, laser beam going over the cliff wall... "KATRINA, WE'RE GETTIN' OUTTA HERE!"

Out of nowhere, I started running towards the opening of the cavern, not caring whether Katrina was following. "Wait up!" Looks like she was. I continued running, legs pumping as fast as possible, until I reached the exit in personal record time. The sight that awaited me was so bittersweet. Hornets and Hawks danced with their metal counterparts, weaving in-between 4 cruisers while shooting each other down. The cruisers were focused on killing the units that boarded the other cruisers, shooting it with the majority of their lasers being forced to hold back the main cannon's signature blast. When she had caught up to me, she was breathing heavily, but managed to cough out, "Wh- What's that?"

"That is our way of getting home. Think you can fight?"

"With?"

"... Your fists? Didn't think so. For now, you stay here, while I... go... SHOOT THE SHIT OUT OF SOMETHING!" I flicked my rail gun back into its original high-powered shot, and let one flaming plasma ball hurdle through the air, right into a Hornet, then burned right through to another of its kin. "GWAHAHAHAAHA!"

* * *

If my group didn't notice that, then I was sure they were blind. Every sentient being turned its head towards the source of the projectile, who was running right into whatever ground forces were left alive. The teams that were sent to try and kill Masterbrood were just as distracted, and Kaelynn, being the tallest, saw a familiar figure. "Hey isn't that... no way."

Marlou responded as well. "No way that guy survived!"

Camille's jaw dropped, while Yuki said, "HE LIIIVES!"

Jamie and Jenny grinned wildly, then joined Ryan in pumping their fists into the air. Reina however, couldn't see over the tops of everyone. "What? What's going on!" She climbed on top of a dead zombie tower, then nearly fell when she saw the same sight. "Oh. I see. ... SQUEEEEE!"

I loosed another shot into an offending Hornet, which fell back into a Hawk which was behind it. I switched back into low powered bursts, and melted a hole through a Hawk, trying to get at my head. Not knowing that my friends were also here, I continued on with my shooting spree. Reina decided that I was another asset to them, then continued on with the task at hand, decapitating the target. "On we go!" She screamed triumphantly, and the others followed her example. Together, they hacked, slashed, chased off, and crushed whatever got in their way, until their target was the only thing left on the ground. The skies were still at a standoff, the cruisers keeping the swarm at bay, while their smaller allies played cat-and-mouse with the enemies.

Masterbrood finally noticed their presence, then turned slowly to them. In his charming, and probably very bad voice, he said, "Why hello. What brings you here?"

Sarcastically, Reina replied, "Oh nothing. We just wanted to, y'know, rip your head off by its hinges."

Masterbrood sighed. The commander of undead seemed... distressed. Of all things that he could be feeling, anger, to maliciousness, a bit of distress had hit him. "Well, if you must. Go ahead."

Reina glanced at Jenny, who shrugged. She turned back to Masterbrood. "That's it? No fight?"

"Of course, I'm going to fight back. I'm just waiting for you to strike first." He looked up at his swarm. "You know, it's unfair really. My army, my weak, organic army, has to face against 4 of your mightiest creations, loaded with power beyond belief. Have your species no honour?"

The statement sent a chill through the air. As if his entire personality had changed, this wasn't the same person as before. Now, he seemed like an average person, complete with feelings. "Well, then let's fight. You and me. Leader to leader. Fair fight?"

The undead commander looked at her curiously. "Really?" He raised an eyebrow.

Reina fastened her claws, preparing for battle. "Really."

Then, the two lunged towards each other.

The distraction group had met up with Reina's group, only to find that she was engaged in a seemingly hopeless fight against the overpowered Masterbrood. I was still shooting at whatever came close, and the air forces seemed to not notice my arrival. Then again, the enemy air force didn't seem to be diminishing, which probably kept them occupied. The duo swung and slashed, blocking with their respective weapons. Masterbrood took on overhead sing at Reina, who rolled towards him, nearly slicing his leg off in the process. She reoriented herself, then lunged at him, claws outstretched. "Just DIE!"

Masterbrood sidestepped and whacked her in the spine, knocking the air out of her. "I already did." His arm raised, and his staff impaled the ground, where it stabbed the ground where Reina was half a second ago. He looked for her, then found that she had the upper hand, as she was falling down towards him, with her feet ready to crack his skull. As expected, Masterbrood dodged the attack, then brought his staff up to counter. He swung, she blocked, and broke one of her claws in the process.

Kaelynn stepped in to help, but Reina said, "No! This is between us. I'm sure... it was him who nearly killed us all!"

Masterbrood held his staff up, ready to strike or block, whichever was required first. He heard what his opponent said however, then paused to ask, "Hm? Explain."

"The attack... on the enemy base... we were there! You nearly killed all of us! Heck, you separated us from one of our most important members!" Masterbrood stepped back from shock of hearing Reina's story. "You... you talk about honour... but you killed hundreds of innocent people... defenseless, children, elderly, you killed them nonetheless!" she slowly stood up, and raised her better weapon. "You know... I liked that guy. The one you might've killed. That's mean of you. An honour bound man. I'll avenge his probable death. Even if one hand of mine is broken. If I die, I'll be with him. Either way... I'll take you on. Man versus Woman. But remember: Woman always trumps Man."

As she started to attack, a blast of fiery plasma hurdled in the space between the combatants. Both fighters were launched back, to avoid the splash damage. It left a trail of fire in its wake, then died off from its own energy consumption. "You really think I'd be dead so quick? Geez, you have no faith in me Reina!" In the small crater left by the force of the impact, stood Reina's lover, once dead and twice insane. I turned to face Masterbrood. "I hear d you broke my little girl's fist. Now, is that any way to treat a lady?"

I aimed my rail gun at him, then charged the next shot to its highest level. "I-I-i-"

"Save your breath. You know, you're different. I can tell. Most commanders would shit their panties, or give some speech, or just flat out curse their enemy. But you, I can tell you're thinking of the wrongs you did. You would've made a fine ally."

Masterbrood, in a final hope to survive, fled, still honouring his promise. "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to kill me. Not while I still have something left to do." He jumped away from his death, into the cavern he had originally created. His swarm suddenly became limp, and anything in the sky fell to the earth, as if dead.

In the sky, every soul was rejoicing in their victory. It was an insane, batshit battle, costing thousands of dollars in ammo, lives, and repairs, but it was a victory nonetheless. My group of child survivors celebrated, although with much less enthusiasm. Reina slumped to the ground, a huge grin on her tired, dirtied face. I knelt down over her, and returned the smile she gave. "Hello there princess, you alive there?"

"I'm fine... it's you who I'm worried about. I mean, you were probably buried underneath a whole bunch of stuff right? But… you're alive. So… Heh." She chuckled, then raised her broken hand. "This thing is gonna hurt. A lot."

I grasped it gently, then said, "Don't worry. I brought some help."

Right on cue, Katrina appeared behind me, her clothes already dirty. "Hi!"

Too tired to ask who the new person was, Reina closed her eyes, and mumbled, "Bring me home. I want to sleep."

I stood up and let Katrina see Reina's hand, while the rest of my buddies relaxed, tired from the skirmish that seemed to take forever. I started walking, to check up on them, but was interrupted by a helicopter-like aircraft. It was shaped like a 'Y', with a rotor on the tip of each line. It had a large Gatling gun mounted on the front, and underneath the belly of the thing was a square-shaped storage, large enough to house quite a few people and their weapons. 3 men armed and armored to the teeth with weapons exited, yet their smiles made them seem all the more friendly. One of them, carrying an RPG came up to us and said, "Need a ride home? Heard you guys went missing."

I nodded at him, and said, "As long as you guys are with those guys," I pointed at the cruiser looming overhead. "Then by all means, take us home."

The three men chuckled, then two of the three left and started helping my friends into the chopper. The one that stayed behind put a hand on my shoulder, then said, "Good job kid. How you guys survive against all odds like this, I'll never know, but I do know one thing." He hefted his RPG. "You guys make a fine group of mercenaries."

The statement left me in awe. He thought we were mercenaries? Somehow, that wasn't offensive. If anything, it gave me an idea on what to call ourselves. The Undying Mercs.


	20. Unexpected End

All is calm. I'm lying in my bed, the lights are off, the sun is just beginning to rise, and the lights are peeking through the window curtains. Reina's still asleep, lying in an adjacent bed from mine, happily asleep, and healing her broken hand. Crap. Now I remember. We were just in a huge battle. Some guy went hiding, and I brought back some medic chick... Katrina I think. I got up, then realized that I wasn't in my room. I, along with everyone else, was lying in one of the medical facilities set up in the base. At least, I hoped it was. All the hospitals look the same. I got up slowly from the bed, and, being who I was, checked the status of whoever was there. Everyone was sleeping, most of them healing from injuries. Reina's hand was bound into a cast, and everyone except Kwan had bandages around scars and bruises. I looked for the door, and went outside, where the cool air of dawn hit me. I breathed it in, then sat down and closed the door in the process. I thought to myself, /I wonder where Chuck is... haven't heard from the guy in quite a while./ I moved up a bit and laid myself on the grass nearby. I could tell that I was near my place, as the bridge from so long ago was there. I remembered that day. Where I randomly jumped up and took that hit for Virgilia. Virgilia... I miss that old lady. "Wonder where she is..."

"Who?"

I looked up and behind me to see Reina walking up. I smiled as she sat down beside me, "Virgilia. Remember those guards that were assigned to us some 3 years ago?"

She sat down to my right and said, "Yea. I remember. You bastard taking that hit." We both shared a light chuckle at the memory. Her shoulders sagged the slightest bit, then she slowly said, "I don't know why, but I think we seemed... closer back then."

I sat up. "What do you mean?"

"Like, nowadays, we're only really close to whoever we stay with most. You and me, Ryan and Jenny, Kwan and Jamie, and Marlou and Kaelynn. Back then, we were all the best of buddies." I understood what she was talking about. The thought was in my mind for quite a bit as well. "I guess that's what time does to people. At least we're all friends. Right?"

Her eyes never left the rising sun. I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, not in a sad way, but because they were getting sore. "Reina. If I had die- never returned, or met up with you guys, what would you have done?"

She looked away from the sun to look at me with her large brown eyes. They looked sad, and scared. As if there was a demon haunting her. "W-What are you saying?"

"Just wondering. If you don't want to answer it, it's fine. I'm just being a little curious." I looked out into the sun, and the wind blew a leaf in our direction. I grabbed it and examined the intricate and abstract patterns of it. "I know what I would do if you were gone." I straightened the leaf. "I'd go look for god. Then beat the divine sense out of him for taking you." I let the next breeze take the leaf, which rode the currents into the sun, until it disappeared from our sights.

Reina leaned back and rested herself on my body. "You haven't changed Bon Qui Qui. You're still that poetic and eccentric guy from high school." Her good hand traced lines on her broken one, which I mimicked with my own. I felt her breathing slow down, and she eventually fell back asleep, a cute smile plastered on her face.

And I watched the sunrise, my princess resting beside me. I felt wetness on my shoulders, which then started spreading across my body. "What the fu..." I looked up, and water hit my eyes. "CRAP ITS RAINING!"

* * *

"OYE, JORDY, WHATCHUU BE MAKIN' NOW?" After dragging Reina and I inside out of the rain, I made my way to Jordan's armory, where I was sure to find a few things. And maybe a new gun. He was at a worktable, welding something with something else. Around him sat tons of bullets, bullet casings, and bullet cartridges. I was still at the door, but even at that range, my voice should have at least made him react. "Jordan?"

"Shut up. Busy making the last Gatling gun. For now at least."

"Gatling gun? Since when did we start using those?"

"Since you've been gone. The past couple of weeks, we've been upgrading and creating new technologies. That helicopter you guys came in was my personal design." He looked up at me, expecting a face of awe at his technological advances. Instead, he got shocked face, "Uh, Miggle?"

Past couple of weeks? How long have we been gone exactly... and what did he mean 'we'? He never worked with anyone. "First things first, how long has it been since we went missing?"

He thought for a minute. "Hm... I'd say about 2 and a half weeks."

"UH-huh... anyways, what do you mean we? You get a team of lackeys to help you build?"

He smiled wickedly, then said, "Sort of. HEY JOHNNIE! LOUIE! MARK!" As he shouted the names, 3 bipedal robots, complete with 3 fingered mechanical arms and hands, appeared. "These boys are my team. Made by me, designed by me, and made to build. I gave 'em names so I didn't have to call them 1 2 and 3. And yes, they can indeed think."

All of the bots had the same structure, 1 glowing optic in the middle of a circular head. They moved on 2 miniature tank treads, one on each leg appendage. Their arms had 3 fingers each, all of which harboring a secret tool. As similar as each one is, each of the robots had a certain distinction to it. Physically and personality-wise. The one closest to me, Johnnie, had a shining blue paint job. It, or he, seemed to be the shyest, and was always blocking playful punches from the slightly larger robots. The next one was a more rugged looking type. It was bigger than the other two, had a brown camouflage pattern, and it liked to hit the smaller of its kind. Jordan identified him as Brett The last one seemed to be the most... intelligent. It was easily the most unique of all 3. Along with the mini-tank treads to move on, it had a few attachments on the back of the legs, which served as a stabilizer, or speed if needed. Its body was painted a shining, metallic-chrome color, which seemed to glow compared to the other two. Jordan said, "This guy's the newest. I call him Armando."

I looked at the robot, which seemed to be nagging the other two robots like a parent. "He seems to be REALLY dominant. You sure they're made for building?"

"Eh, they can be modified in a few seconds to carry a firearm. But their purpose is here. To make firearms." He called the three over, and they all lined up, smallest to largest. "Now Miguel, what was it that you came here for?"

My mind snapped back to the whole reason I was here. "Oh yeah! I was thinking about it, but I think I should use normal guns from here on out." Jordan looked at me with a look of confusion. "Cause I mean, if I rely on the rail gun too much, and say I lose it, then there's no other replacement for it. Whereas if I'm used to a sniper, then I could find another one lying around much easier than finding another rail gun."

Jordan's face was all serious. His... generous stature helped give him a more intimidating look. "So you're telling me, you want to switch the most powerful non-mounted gun in the history of existence, FOR A F***ING SNIPER RIFLE."

"Yep. That's pretty much it."

"... Fine." He turned to his robots and sent them to go do something in the back of the room. "Alright, I'll get you a sniper. A damn fine one too. But, bring me back the rail gun. I want to copy the mechanisms so I can create more of the badass weapons."

I laughed and agreed. "Alright, I'll go fetch the thing from my place. And if you wouldn't mind, you remember that gun from waaaay back? When we first met?"

"That old thing? Don't tell me you want THAT one."

"Nah. Just the model. And a bayonet."

Jordan shook his head and left, but I knew that, being Jordan, something would be different with my gun. I don't know how we exactly became friends to be honest. I left his garage to get my rail gun, feeling great within the relative confines of the city. I wonder what the Godfather was up to right around now. "Eh, I'll check on grandpa after I get my crap." I looked around, and realized I had forgotten the way to my place. "If I can FIND my crap."

* * *

30 minutes of wandering around eventually led me to my room, which was nice and dusty. Not a surprise, considering we've been gone for 3 weeks. Too bad there isn't house cleaning... I looked around for my rail gun and found it resting on my bed. Then I thought,_ 'How'd it get here? I didn't put it here did I?_

'Nah kid, someone else took it and put it here. I think it was that nurse of yours.' Oh. My. God.

"Chuck!" If I could give an intangible person a hug I would have. But, I couldn't. "Give me a good explanation to why you're gone, or I'm making the rhino to chase you again."

'UHHHHHH.'

"I'm joking. Just gimme an explanation. It's annoying when you randomly disappear from my head. It's empty in there."

'I know it is kid. I live there. I clean out the place. Nah, I'm just kiddin' ya, but seriously, I don't know why I keep on disappearing from your head. I can tell I'm not there, but it's... weird.' He was quiet for a few seconds, then continued. 'I think after you suffer some heavy damage, it jogs your head a bit, and I go to sleep for a little while. 'Although, I can read up on 'files' that are your memories when I get back. So, I never really fall back on what happened. So you're switchin' guns?'

I nodded, even though he couldn't see me. "Yep. I had some thought to switch it. Besides, Jordan said he was going to take the gun apart so he could make more of the stuff. I kind of trust him with that job."

'Kind of?'

"Eh, yea. He can get a bit... yea." He agreed, and I set off to cleaning the room, conversing with Chuck about battle techniques, Reina, different types of weapons, different hobbies, Reina, and whether or not a gun could be considered erotic to a female.

He changed the tone of subject suddenly as I started to dust off the stage where my rail gun usually was on display when I wasn't using it. 'Hey, Kid?'

"Hmm?"

'You know how, back at the camp thing, how I kinda conspired with Yuki to... get ridda Reina?'

I stayed silent, trying not to make a t-rex bite his tail for that. I managed to calm down enough to ask, "Yes... Why..."

'W-well, I just wanted to apologize. I know you love her and shit, but I guess I kinda got a bit... grumpy. And maybe a tad jealous...'

"Jealous! What?" I nearly tipped the table I was dusting from shock. "Jealous of what?"

'You and Reina! The only girl I've _ever_ actually seen with MY eyes! And I haven't had _any _contact with her for way too long...' I felt pity for the conscience. They guy literally never got out, and the only female he's had contact with was gone. Come to think of it, I haven't actually seen Virgilia myself.

"Hey, how 'bout we go find Maria?" I smiled to myself. "We'll need to find Virgilia too, so this way, we both win. Whaddya say?"

He sighed. 'Alright. Let's go find her.'

The two of us walked out of the room and set search for our companions, with absolutely no idea where to start. 'Anyone you know that knows her?'

"There's the other guards, but it'd a bit awkward since none of them really ever liked us." He nodded. "Well, I guess we could wander around and hope we come across her? I don't know, walk around the city I guess."

'Sounds good to me. I ain't doin' the walkin.' A single snake fell on top of his head. 'Okay fine fine fine!'

I laughed then made the snake disappear.

[Okay, author's note here. So, earlier while writing this, one of my friends commented on this story that made me lose any and all want to write this anymore. So, until, or if, I find any reason to write this story that has been demoralized, it won't be finished. If there are any fans of the story, I do apologize for any inconveniences. Also, don't hate on my friend. I don't think they meant it. I'll still be writing, I just need to find something else to write. Maybe I can finally get to writing my other stories eh? Heh, well. I'm gone.]


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